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ROVs and TPLs Look for Missing Flight 370; Search Area Remains Massive; Some Media Critics Deride Extensive Coverage of Missing Flight; Obama Disses Russia

Aired March 25, 2014 - 15:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Just past the bottom of the hour, you're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

And we now know that the U.S. Navy's black-box finder has just reached Perth, and in just a couple of days, it will be making its slow journey on a ship through the high seas to look for flight 370, and specifically find those boxes.

So, in Perth, planes are returning to the skies soon, 3:30 in the morning there, after severe weather in this remote part of the world halted the search.

These search crews know they cannot afford to waste another day, because if they don't find the black box soon, it may be impossible to ever locate the plane and figure out what really happened.

That's because the batteries, we keep talking about this, sending out these pings, the signals, they are dying fast, so the crucial pinging sound may go silent as early as April 8th, give or take here.

So, the tough task of locating the potential wreckage of Malaysia flight 370 is just beginning, and if -- and that's a big if -- if and when it is found, it could be thousands of feet below the ocean's surface.

But, this high-tech underwater vehicle could really make the difference in recovering crucial evidence.

With that, here is CNN's Rosa Flores.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This could be the key to solving the mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH-370, an underwater piece of equipment that works in the deep sea called a remotely operating vehicle, ROV for short.

It's what the Malaysian government has added to its fleet of resources, in hopes of recovering some of the most critical pieces of evidence from the deep sea. STEVEN WALLACE, FORMER DIRECTOR, FAA OFFICE OF ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION: The two key pieces of evidence that outweigh all other evidence are the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder.

FLORES: Helix Canyon Offshore gave CNN an exclusive look at the ROV Triton XLS.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you getting a signal on the ROV beacons, as well?

FLORES: The multi-million-dollar machine is tethered to a vessel. Dropped into the water by a cable.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have an altitude of 28 meters.

FLORES: And slowly remotely lowered to the sea floor by pilots in a control room located inside the ship. The ROV is equipped with cameras.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two cameras here on the pilot monitor and co-pilot monitor.

FLORES: Meaning an ROV like this one could lay the first eyes on the wreckage site of MH-370.

WALLACE: The wreckage can tell you how it impacted or how it came apart. It can certainly tell you if certain parts were burned. It can tell you a very complete story.

Metal arms and jaws are controlled by a joystick.

MARTIN STITT, ROV SUPERINTENDENT: It's a black box, not a problem at all to pick it up, put it in a basket and recover it back to the vessel.

FLORES: But before the data recorders are recovered, the wreckage must be located, task as daunting as the Indian Ocean is deep.

Rosa Flores, CNN, New York

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: So we're learning about all this technology. When you hear it out, it's really like this virtual alphabet soup, right, of high-tech equipment helping this plane search.

You just heard about the ROV. Next, I want to talk about the TPL. That's Towed Ping Locater, which just arrived in Perth, hours ago.

And a ship does exactly that to it. It tows it along. So, you see this graphic? It actually shows you how this works.

The TPL is right on the left-hand side of your screen, yellow, and you see how a vessel tows it along at really, really slow speeds as it's listening.

Really, it's just the ears here for the ping for the black box and the cockpit-voice recorder.

And here is what we all hope the TPL 25 will pick up. This is the sound of the black box ping.

That is what they need to hear, and my next guest used an earlier version of the TPL 25 for the TWA Flight 800 investigation in 1996. She is Bobbie Scholley. She's a retired Navy captain and Navy diver.

And, Bobbie, so, as we talk about this TPL here, and just to reiterate for people, you have to find -- there's the analogy with the needle in the haystack, but you have to have the haystack to find the needle, so you have to have the debris field before you even use the TPL to find the black box, right?

CAPTAIN BOBBIE SCHOLLEY, U.S. NAVY (RETIRED): Yes, exactly. So we need those search-and-rescue resources to get back out there, now that the weather is clearing, and reduce that area so that we can find that haystack.

And once we get that haystack, we need to get the TPL 25 out there before the battery expires, and hopefully, we can hone in on that pinger so that we know the general area of where those black boxes are and use the TPL 25 to hone in on that, find the debris field on the bottom of the ocean so that we know the aircraft debris field on the bottom is hopefully. Maybe use the sonar, as well, to help that.

And then we get that ROV, remote-operated vehicle, out there on the ship. Lower that ROV down with its manipulator arms, and the camera, the high-resolution camera, so that the experts can see what's going on down there.

We'd like to grab those black boxes first, bring them up and get them off to the investigators and then start recovering victims and debris.

BANFIELD: So the TPL, then the ROV, and those microphones, then the black box, and then answers.

Let me ask you this. In fact, throw the graphic back up, because I'm just confused as far as the TPL.

It's being dragged behind this vessel. When you look at this illustration -- so, can it go -- it goes within, under the surface of the water.

SCHOLLEY: Yes. The TPL is being towed behind the ship, but it does sink down to depth, so that it is towed right along the bottom.

And it is capable of going down to the depths we're talking about out there in the Indian Ocean, down to as deep as 20,000 feet, so it has to be towed down deep, almost along the bottom, not touching the bottom, of course, but down close to the bottom.

BANFIELD: Got it. And it's there in Perth. We know it will take about a week and a half actually to get to the area where they're searching, the haystack, if you will, because it's just that remote. That's how long it will take. And the juice, we don't know how much more juice in these boxes that exists. Bobbie Scholley, thank you so much for your expertise here, talking about the TPL.

Coming up, if the satellite data has narrowed the search area, why is it still so huge?

We will take you inside the Virtual Room to explain how speed and fuel play into the flight's final hours, Tom Foreman standing by for us.

Also ahead, did you hear? The president of the United States "dissing" Russia today, using a term that's got a lot of people talking.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Here's something new that we know. Search teams looking for Flight 370, they have officially called off the search in the so- called northern corridor.

So now, they're really honing in on this specific portion of the southern corridor off the Australian coast, but that search area is still massive.

CNN's Tom Foreman is standing by for us in our Virtual Room. And, Tom, I mean, good news that they're narrowing it; bad news that it's still so huge.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this has been this way the whole time, like a step forward and then you realize it's still two steps back because it is huge.

This is massive. This is the latest search area that they're focusing on. Bear in mind, they're still considering the bigger area, but the focus is right here.

What we're talking about is 621,000 square miles. That's five times as big as the Air France search area, where it took two years to find the plane.

So why is it still so big? Let's look at the dynamics of this plane and that will give you an idea why.

The first thing you have to think about in all this is speed. Speed, how fast was this plane going? They have an idea. They have a pretty good guess as to how fast it was going, but a pretty good guess still leaves a lot of play.

A plane like this can cruise along -- they thought it was going between somewhere between 400- and 450-miles-an-hour. If you're traveling at that speed and off by five minutes or 10 minutes or 20 minutes, that's a tremendous amount of distance that you now have to search because you don't know where the plane went.

That's complicated by another factor here, the issue of altitude. They have a pretty good idea where the plane was flying. They think an altitude. But again, if it is up in the stratosphere where planes like this like to cruise around 35,000 feet, or 30,000 feet, the air is much thinner. There's less weather. It can go further on less fuel.

If you drop it down to where most of us live, there are all sorts of things that slow down the performance of the plane so it doesn't go as far on fuel, and fuel depletion is another factor you have to consider in all of this. How much fuel did they really have?

We think about fuel in a car, like how far can I go on a tank of gas. Well, that's fairly constant, but with a plane like this, all those other factors, how much it had to turn and maneuver, and how low it was determines how quickly it burns out its fuel load, on top of which, Brooke -- I know that you would think of this, maybe a lot of people wouldn't, but -- as you burn all that fuel, all of that weight, the physics of the plane are changing, because it's getting lighter. And that also comes into play.

So, knowing when the fuel ran out, that's still a guess. And again, if you're off by five minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes in terms of when the fuel ran out, makes a huge difference as to where the plane goes.

Brooke?

BANFIELD: Still sounds like a lot of guesses listening to you here. Tom Foreman, thank you.

And even though there are more than 200 lives lost, presumed lost here, one of the world's most sophisticated jets is capable of disappearing, media critics taking on CNN for its coverage.

There's a new poll suggesting those critics are wrong. Brian Stelter joins me next to explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Malaysia Flight 370 has captured media attention, worldwide. In fact, critics argue the coverage has gone too far, too much time devoted to this story, too much speculation.

But look at these numbers with me. A new poll by the Pew Research Center reveals that that view is actually in the minority, because according to Pew, a third of Americans say there has been too much coverage about the missing plane, but 12 percent says there hasn't been enough and almost half -- you see 48 percent there -- say the coverage has been about right.

Brian Stelter joins me from New York. He is our senior media correspondent, host of CNN'S "RELIABLE SOURCES."

So, Mr. Stelter here, you do the math here and you add it up to 60 percent. Sixty percent say they are seeing the right amount of coverage, even would like to see more.

Does that surprise you? BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: What surprises me is the 12 percent who say there is not enough coverage, because the media has been covering this exhaustively and putting pressure on the governments involved to figure out some answers here.

But I did think it was notable to see only 33 percent of people in this poll with a margin of error of about three percent saying there's been too much coverage, because if you were to question a lot of media critics, you come up with a very different result.

Many would say there's been too much coverage, there's been a saturation of this and that it's too much.

I think what we're seeing is a split between what so-called media critics say and what the public actually is interested in. This happens all the time, but it's been very visible on this story.

This is a story that people want an ending to and they're still are not satisfied if they have gotten one.

BANFIELD: Right, we've talked about it before, a beginning, middle and an end. And we don't have then end yet.

And the families, we've heard from them, too. They say, please, media, keep shining a light on it because they want accountability from the government, from the airlines.

STELTER: That's right. I think this poll also shows people have so many options nowadays.

We used to live in a world of media scarcity, but now, we live in this world of media infinity where you can find whatever you're interested in on the Internet or television.

As a result, it makes more sense to have channels like CNN or Fox or MSNBC focused on one story at a time when there's a big news story happening.

BANFIELD: You know, you bring up Fox. You have Bill O'Reilly on Fox News, right? He's been one of the more vocal critics and he says that the coverage is hurting the credibility of news networks, that it's degrading to journalism.

But when you watched Fox last week, the other shows in Fox in primetime were devoting much airtime to the story, Brian Stelter.

STELTER: Yeah, you know, I do love it when Bill O'Reilly plays media critic. After all, he's the most popular cable news host in the United States. He's got very interesting points of view on this.

But I think his criticisms of this ring hollow because other programs on Fox have been covering the plane exhaustively. He seems to have an issue internally with his colleagues, and I wonder if he's talked to them about it.

It's always interesting to see different hosts at a network disagreeing on air, but that's my personal take on it.

He's very sensitive to ratings. When his audience is not interested in something, he changes the subject, so I'm surprised to hear him being so critical of plane coverage, given that people's appetite for this story interests is very, very high.

And it's not surprising it's very, very high. This is a story unlike we have ever seen. I've never seen anything like it. I don't think you have either.

BANFIELD: Sitting at the dentist this morning, you know when they try to talk to you when they're working, asking me about the plane.

I am no longer surprised. It is in -- everyone is talking about it.

Brian Stelter, thank you so much.

Coming up next, President Obama, talking NSA, Ukraine, but it was something that he said very specifically about Russia today that has caught a lot of people's attention.

That's coming up.

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BANFIELD: No other way to put it here, so I'll just say it. President Obama today flat out "dissed" Vladimir Putin.

After meeting with Western leaders in the Netherlands, he called Putin's Russia a regional power whose meddling in Ukraine is a sign of weakness.

So, CNN's senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta with the president there in the Netherlands, and, so, not saying world power, regional power, which certainly there was rippling from that.

But they're strong words, Jim. What about actions, though, from Obama?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it got our attention, Brooke. That is right.

And the president, when you talk about actions, he warned Vladimir Putin, once again, that he will defend, the U.S. will defend NATO allies against Russian aggression. He made that point today at this news conference here in The Hague.

He also said that, if Russia decides to go into other parts of Ukraine, there will be bigger sanctions against Russia's energy and finance industries, just to name a couple.

But, as you mentioned, it was a very interesting moment that happened in this press conference when the president was asked whether or not he regretted criticizing his old rival Mitt Romney, who once said that Russia was the U.S. top geopolitical foe. As a matter of fact, he said that to our very own Wolf Blitzer.

The president said, no, he was right then and he is right now. And It was a dig at Russia. Here's what the president had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Russia is a regional power that is threatening some of its immediate neighbors, not out of strength but out of weakness.

Ukraine has been a country in which Russia had enormous influence for decades, since the breakup of the Soviet Union.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And the president went on to say the U.S. has influence over its neighbors here -- over in the western hemisphere in North America, Latin America, but the U.S. does not go about invading those neighbors.

Now, the president went on to say that he's actually more worried about nuclear terrorism, a nuclear bomb going off in Manhattan.

We went back to administration officials to ask him -- to ask them whether or not the president was referring to anything in particular.

And they said, no, he wasn't talking about any intelligence about something like that occurring.

But we should keep in mind, Brooke, they are just coming out of a nuclear security summit here in the Hague, and very interesting, Brooke, they actually had an interactive experience for these world leaders at the summit where they presented a dirty-bomb scenario.

So, this was very much on the president's mind when he made those comments earlier today.

BANFIELD: Made comments about that. Made comments about the NSA. We know we'll be looking, later on CNN, for more coverage of that, as well, Jim Acosta in the Hague. Jim, thank you.

And that's it for me. I'm Brooke Baldwin at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.

To Washington, Jim Sciutto, taking over "THE LEAD," which starts right now.