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New Search Area Weather; New Search Zone; Mental Health Checks

Aired March 28, 2014 - 14:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks very much for watching. I'll be back 5:00 p.m. Eastern. Another special two-hour edition of THE SITUATION ROOM. NEWSROOM with Brooke Baldwin starts right now.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf, thank you so much.

Great to be with you on this Friday. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

As we begin the hour, live here in New York for special coverage of the hunt for Flight 370. Huge, huge developments today. The biggie, the search zone that moved. And not just a little bit, but a lot. So this is all based upon this new assumption that the airliner ran out of fuel earlier because it flew faster than originally thought.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTIN DOLAN, CHIEF COMMISSIONER, AUSTRALIAN TRANSPORT SAFETY BUREAU: The new information is based on continuing analysis of radar data about the aircraft's movement between the South China Sea and the Strait of Malacca before radar contact was lost. This continuing analysis indicates the plane was traveling faster than was previously estimated, resulting in increased fuel usage and reducing the possible distance it traveled south into the Indian Ocean.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Also, this new area here has turned up something incredible because finally we can report the first non-satellite sightings of potential debris. Not just one here. Five separate planes, out of 10, have spotted something. This is a picture of that something. Multiple objects, we're told, of various sizes and colors. And our correspondent there, who's been working this story out of Perth, Kyung Lah, she was actually on board one of these really sophisticated planes, this P-8, and she, herself, actually spotted some debris. Take a listen to what Kyung said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This plane did spot some debris. And there was a bit of excitement. The plane tipped to the right. They got very, very close to the ocean. Some white debris. Some orange rope. A blue bag. But it wasn't significant enough to say that it was connected to the plane at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: We will have much more from her shortly. And the promising news is here (ph). For the very first time, one plane was even able to relocate something spotted by a previous plane. And that may be because the seas in the new search area, located 680 miles northeast of the previous one, is also a lot closer to land. And that's key here, right, because it makes it easier for the search planes to get there, spend more time over the seas and then return back.

Meantime, word of this new search zone, and potentially wasted days and days of searching the old spots, was just too much for some of these family members who walked out of this briefing in Beijing. You see all those empty seats there? They walked out in protest, leaving the panel to stare at the empty rows, while a relative's representative berated them.

Going back now to the big news today, though, this new search area. Another major upside to it, it has calmer, gentler weathers than, as we've been talking about there, the roaring 40s. Remember, that refers to the latitude known for the tempest-like weather, the chaotic currents that's seen here in this view, where the previous search zone was located. Nasty conditions there.

So, Chad Myers, let me bring you back in today as we've got this new development here. And we've talked so much about, you know, the previous search zone and the horrible conditions here, 2:00 in the morning their time. How will it look today in the new area?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Not too bad.

BALDWIN: OK.

MYERS: There's a storm and I think it's going to affect it a little bit, but they're still going to fly there. What yesterday did for us too, Brooke, was it gave us a bunch of clear skies. So all of these satellites that have been looking down here in this area finally got a clear day. Not this that we've had the past couple of days, which is murky clouds and some actually fairly thick. We had a clear day, so all those satellites that passed over the area yesterday got a good look. So now they're going to go back and look at those images from those satellites and maybe kind of help things out a little bit here.

I don't understand when you find something on the satellite, like 300 things, and then you don't go -- keep going looking for that. I -- that blows my mind.

BALDWIN: Right.

MYERS: It's like getting a hit on - it's like getting a hit on Battleship and then not going all the way around to see which way that ship is and you just keep - you keep searching around the Battleship game.

Anyway, here's the -- I digress.

BALDWIN: We'll take your word for it, Chad. MYERS: Here's the same story right here. This is the old search area down here. Here's the new search area up here. So other than this little batch of cloudiness, and that's really just a little thunderstorm complex. Remember now it's hurricane season or cyclone season down here because this is the summer part, now turning into fall, but this is the warm part of the year for them and so that's when you get these thunderstorm complexes, these tropical like complexes to pop up.

Here is the screaming 60s, the 50s here and then your 40s right through here. And we're still very close to the 40 degree latitude south mark. What this does, though, a little bit too, on some of these geosynchronous earth orbiting satellites, it doesn't have to look at it at such an angle kind of coming in at 40 degrees rather than at 45 degrees. So there's a lot of things going for this new area if there's something there, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Well, taking your analogy, no one's looking to sink anyone's battleships. We're trying to figure out what the heck happened on this plane and find the pieces of this black box. And when you talked about, you know, the older areas that we have so focused on because the Malaysian government had so focused on those areas, the big question, what do those pieces of whatever it was, debris, mean. Take a listen to Malaysia's transportation minster.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HISHAMMUDDIN BIN HUSSEIN, ACTING MALAYSIAN TRANSPORTATION MINISTER: Because of ocean drift, this new search area could still be consistent with the potential objects identified by previous satellite images over the past week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: All right, so Chad is standing by. And, Chad, let me just bring in our next two guests. We have oceanographer Kathleen Dohan. She is a research scientist. And here with me in New York, CNN aviation analyst Jeff Wise.

So let me just begin with you, Jeff, because it's nice to have you here sitting next to me. Let me begin with you. When you look at these pictures, and, guys, can we throw up the picture from the actual piece of debris here, the visual sighting of this white, looks like, square object. We'll see it in a second. What does that look like to you, anything?

JEFF WISE, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: It looks like - oh, boy, it's a rectangle. You know, there's a lot of manmade things that kind of look like that.

BALDWIN: That's about it.

WISE: One of the things I think we learned from the last week is that there's a lot of debris in the ocean and most of that debris is not airplane. So I think we can expect to get a lot of false positives as we search this area. It's closer to main shipping channels, it's closer to main -- human habitation. You know, everything that runs off the land through storm drains, everything that gets thrown off of ships, all the garbage, all the debris. Human beings make a lot of stuff and a lot of it winds up in the ocean.

BALDWIN: Kathleen, when you see this picture, and you know how this works, maybe not with this search specifically, but can you just walk me through the process, because I continue to wonder, OK, you have these satellite images, right, and once they pinpoint some objects, some specks, some debris, then they send these planes out, these really sophisticated planes, like the P-8 that Kyung was on, and then ultimately they send, what, ships to finally hopefully recover this stuff and see if it's connected to the plane?

KATHLEEN DOHAN, OCEANOGRAPHER: Yes. You know as much as I do about that area - or about that type of aspect of the search. What I know is what the currents are doing in that general area.

BALDWIN: And what's that?

DOHAN: So I look at surface currents. I use satellite data. Sorry.

BALDWIN: And what's that about the currents?

DOHAN: So what the currents do is they move - they move the debris around, as do winds. Winds blow on the surface and can move debris as well. But we suspect that it's probably sitting mostly in the surface of the ocean versus sticking up largely out of the water. And so the currents, the strength of the currents are going to play a large role in, if you spot it at one spot and then go back six hours later, how much will it have moved?

And so the great thing about this new search location, if indeed this is the right place to be looking, is that the currents are way slower compared to the other search location by say five miles a day travel versus 35 miles a day, as well as the winds are less strong, so you won't have as many waves to obscure spotting things, as well as drifting -- winds drifting things along. So this is - this is a hopeful area to look.

Although as was previously mentioned, it's closer to Australia. There is a (INAUDIBLE) current that goes along the coast and it sheds off these eddies (ph) that carry water with them along which would include garbage from the coast. And - so, you know, there will be a lot more chances for -

BALDWIN: OK.

DOHAN: The debris to not be associated with the plane. But if it is associated with the plane, we have a much narrower search area.

BALDWIN: So it seems encouraging, but this is what I keep coming back to, Jeff, is the fact that if I'm one of these family members and I've been sitting holed up in this, you know, hotel in Kuala Lumpur or Beijing and you mean to tell me that they have been looking in the wrong area and they've been delivering news about 300 pieces of debris here and 122 pieces of debris here based upon satellite imagery, you've been wasting my time.

WISE: It's frustrating. It's more than frustrating if you've got a loved one involved. So much of what we know is based - we're sort of inferring from what they're saying. We're having to sort of work between the lines because there's a certain opacity in their - in their disclosures. So we don't really know why they're doing what they're doing. They're invoking the authority of the Malaysian prime minister. They're invoking the authority of the Australian prime minister. And a lot of the things that they've asked us to take their word on it haven't really panned out.

BALDWIN: No. I mean are those other chunks of debris, for lack of a better phrase, is that now totally irrelevant? Throw it out the window?

WISE: That seems to be what they're saying.

BALDWIN: Wow.

Stick around. I've got more for you. Kathleen, you as well. I want to talk about the plane here speeding up. This is also some new information we're learning today and what this might tell us about autopilot, whether or not it was on or off.

We also made mention to my colleague there in Perth, Kyung Lah, because she hopped on board one of these P-8s searching with these crews for debris and she herself saw an object in the water. You will hear from her. What did she say? What are the searches like?

Also ahead, the airline's CEO today revealing that he has his pilots get psych tests. You know, is this normal? How often does this happen? What kind of questions are asked? And what are those red flags that they're watching for?

Stay with me. You're watching CNN's special coverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When the U.S. wants to locate something underneath the surface of the ocean, this is what it deploys, the P-8 Poseidon. And this is the crew. These are the men associated with and who fly the world's most high tech aircraft. And today, I get to fly with them. I'm one of the journalists embedded with the P-8 Poseidon as it takes off on a renewed mission. The Australian government says that there's a new search area about 700 miles northeast of where it once (ph) searched.

What's aboard this plane is so classified that we can't bring any electronic equipment. I have to leave my CNN photojournalists aboard this van. Everything has to stay behind that's recordable. What we'll do is fly about four hours down to the search area and look for about two areas and then make the long trek back. The hope is to spot some debris.

See you on the other side.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And there she goes.

Welcome back. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

You just saw Kyung Lah granted this rare access inside a P-8 Poseidon search plane. And so she just stepped off it just a short time ago and she now tells us that during this nine hours of searching, she and the crew did indeed spot objects in the new search zone near Australia. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAH (voice-over): This plane did spot some debris. And there was a bit of excitement. The plane tipped to the right. They got very, very close to the ocean. Some white debris, some orange rope, a blue bag. But it wasn't significant enough to say that it was connected to the plane at all.

Fatigue is a big concern. I won't say that it's a problem because it's something that they are all aware of, at least the crew that we were with. You saw them rotate after 30 minutes to an hour. They were constantly self-checking or checking each other and making sure that they rotate because fatigue - certainly if you stare out at the same space again and again and you have to stay alert, that's going to be - it's going to be a problem. And that's why they constantly talked about it and they were constantly standing up and changing positions. So that is something that they all worry about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: All right, Kyung Lah, thank you. We'll be talking to a Navy SEAL actually just in a little bit exactly about how they're trained on these missions to really focus on debris and how to mark them on the grid. So that will be a fascinating discussion.

You, Jeff Wise, our CNN aviation analyst, let me ask you about some of these new developments today, beyond that the new search area. We talked so much about the left turn, right?

WISE: Right.

BALDWIN: So we're learning today that after this left turn, where again, according to reports, and whether this is fact or fiction we don't totally know if it, in fact, descended to 12,000 feet. What we're learning is that the plane apparently slowed down.

WISE: It was very confusing how this announcement was worded. What they said was, we think that the aircraft initially, during that first left hand segment -

BALDWIN: Sped up.

WISE: Sped up, used more fuel. And that's the important part. Now, speed is secondary. What's really important is that it used more fuel.

BALDWIN: It used more fuel.

WISE: Therefore, it had less fuel when it made that southern turn. When it - sometime after we lost contact with it on radar, around 2:22 in the morning, it made a turn. It started heading south into the Indian Ocean. And we know where it wound up. It wound up on this arc.

BALDWIN: Right.

WISE: And we know when it wound up, about 8:11. So - but to get from its - that spot at 2:22 to that arc at 8:11, it must have traveled a smaller distance. It must have been traveling at a slower rate because it had less fuel.

The thing I want to add though, there's a lot of different ways you can burn less fuel. You can travel high and father.

BALDWIN: It's all about altitude.

WISE: It's all about altitude, exactly. So somewhere in that envelope is the solution of what it did. But we're kind of just guesstimating at this point. And this is - this is what we're really realizing about that first search area. We didn't know if they had extra intelligence or some other reason why they were defining that box. It now seems pretty clear that they were just guesstimating a speed and that that guess didn't pan out.

BALDWIN: OK. Let me throw this at you, the expert here, because there's been a lot of talk about autopilot and what was happening, right, inside the cockpit right around the turn and then for all those many hours that it obviously continued to travel before something happened and it landed, crashed into the Indian Ocean. Autopilot.

WISE: Right.

BALDWIN: Can you speed up and slow down on autopilot or are we to assume, with this new knowledge, that someone must have been at the wheel?

WISE: Well, it's -- the issue is less, whether it was done on autopilot, if it was done by entering waypoints. But the real question is, was it done intentionally or was it somehow the result of an accident? You know --

BALDWIN: The speed intentional or the altitude intentional?

WISE: The entire flight path of the plane.

BALDWIN: Yes.

WISE: Was this - was this the result of an accident where the pilots lost control and somehow the plane was flying itself off into the wild blue yonder, or was this carried out intentionally by whatever these human beings were who were in charge of the plane?

BALDWIN: But we're nowhere clearer on that with this new knowledge, are we?

WISE: It seems - this - well, it seems - it seems as it did before, pretty clear that this was intentional. This is not a plane meandering about the sky. It made a left turn. It made another left turn an hour later. Then it flew straight for another six hours. That is not the kind of thing that you will see from a plane on its own.

I should add that there is another implicit assumption in this.

BALDWIN: What's that?

WISE: That is that the plane flew at a constant rate of speed. The only reason really we have to make that assumption is because the equations don't work otherwise. If the plane was zigzagging around in the sky, it would have the effect of the plane flying lower, it would have the effect of making it go further north on the arc. We know it was on the arc, but it if it's going slower, it's going to wind up more in the northerly part, more closer to Indonesia.

BALDWIN: OK. There's still so much we don't know. I want to ask you about the psych test that these pilots are required to take and what that entails in a minute. So, stay with me here, Jeff Wise.

Coming up, we have heard from the CEO of Malaysia Airlines revealing that his pilots, as I mentioned, they undergo these psychological evaluations. How often, though, were these tests done and were the pilots, the older pilot, the younger co-pilot here, were they cleared by all these tests? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Welcome back. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Here's one question, did the pilots of Flight 370 get mental health evaluations? Today, the CEO of this airline lifting the curtains just a little bit into his airline regulations. I should mention, though, investigators into the - investigations into the captain and the co- pilot have thus far not turned up any big leads. But a U.S. official tells CNN, nothing suspicious has jumped out during the FBI's review of those two hard drives belonging to the pilot and the co-pilot.

So, let's bring in correspondent Paula Hancocks. She's live in Kuala Lumpur for us right now.

And so, Paula, how often does this specific airline, Malaysia Air, do these psychological tests on their pilots?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, these tests are standard, we're being told. We hear this from the Malaysian Airlines chief this Friday afternoon in a press conference, basically saying that every new pilot that joins the company has to undergo this psychological testing. And it's not just when you start. It does continue throughout your career. So it's important, he said, that - that they do continue to test them. Let's listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) AHMAD JAUHARI YAHYA, CEO, MALAYSIA AIRLINES: That's something that we check yearly and six monthly, depending how old they are on their - you know, on their medical annual (ph). And that's normally done through an interview with the aviation doctors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANCOCKS: Now, this is obviously something that investigators are looking at. The focus is on the pilots and the absence of physical evidence and the absence of knowing exactly what happened. And the fact that Malaysian authorities are saying that it was deliberate action that let to this disappearance. So inevitably the focus is on the pilots. And also in this press conference, the one question was, did these two pilots know each other? Did they know each other and have they flown together before - before they actually got inside the cockpit? He said he didn't know. He said it was an internal rostering system. It's possible they may or may not have known each other. He simply didn't know.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: Paula, did he say anything about the pilot or the co-pilot as far as taking these psych tests, any red flags in the past? Could he say?

HANCOCKS: No. He didn't say anything about that and, in theory, given what he said, that they're checked every six months, every year, if the checks were in place, if everything that's happened as it should have done, in theory they would have cleared because they were in the air and they were actually flying. So he didn't say there were any red flags whatsoever.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK, Paula Hancocks in Kuala Lumpur. Paula, thank you.

And just staying on this quickly, Jeff Wise, let me bring you back in, CNN aviation analyst. And we were talking before. You said, yes, you know, you're not a commercial pilot, but you've flown private. You have had to take these psych tests. And I'm just curious, when we're talking about a pilot or a co-pilot of a 777, what kinds of questions are asked and what answers might trigger red flags?

WISE: Well, you know, I - just to make a point that it's essential that pilots, any kind of pilot, private or ATP, be in sound health, physical and mental. And, for instance, you are not allowed to take certain classes of drugs. For instance, you know, anything that would impair your judgment. So I don't -- I haven't taken these tests myself -

BALDWIN: Yes.

WISE: But, you know, anything that would lead to psychotic break or, you know, I mean any kind of condition which would predisposes you to commit suicide would be obviously something that you would not want that person in the cockpit. BALDWIN: OK. According to the CEO, they were taking them every six months. And to Paula's point, I mean obviously they were flying, so you -- one would have to deuce no red flags, I suppose.

WISE: Doesn't mean there's nothing there, of course.

BALDWIN: Right. Jeff Wise, thank you.

Coming up here, a dramatic development in the search today because for the very first time, crews have spotted potential debris in the water. And those objects are in this new search zone. So are they close to answers?

Also ahead, families staging a walkout at today's press briefing and the partner of an American onboard that plane is blasting this airline for saying all lives are lost. Hear directly from her, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)