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Pinger Locator Heads To Search Area; Flight Attendant's Husband: We Want The Truth; North Korea Fired Mid-Range Ballistic Missiles Off Its East Coast Last Week; Australia Vows To Ramp Up Search Effort

Aired March 31, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Being fitted on board a U.S. Navy tow pinger locator that will try and isolated the signal from the cockpit and flight data recorders. And the Blue Fin 21, an underwater vehicle that will comb the ocean floor looking for wreckage.

(on camera): No matter how specialized and sophisticated this equipment, it won't do any good unless that search zone can be narrowed.

COMMANDER MARK MATTHEWS, U.S. NAVY: We need point of impacts, estimation than we have right now.

NEWTON (voice-over): U.S. Navy Commander, Mark Matthews is leading the team that will deploy the locator equipment and it needs to come within about a mile of the pinger just like the one he is holding.

MATTHEWS: I can search approximately 50 square miles a day. If we are searching for a beacon and we are living on borrowed time, I need something that's less than 1,000 square miles.

NEWTON (on camera): Right now, we are dealing with over 100,000 square miles.

MATTHEWS: Yes.

NEWTON: As you said, challenging.

MATTHEWS: It's very low probability of detection if that is our search area.

NEWTON (voice-over): That's a sobering thought for the families of those missing. As we board "Ocean Shield" those working to deploy her are mindful every minute counts. The pinger signal will last little more than a week and any wreckage has been dragged by wind and currents for weeks now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: You know, Carol, we can tell you that the "Ocean Shield" is now deployed. It will take two or three days to get to the search zone and I can tell you everyone aboard that ship including three key Australian investigators are hoping that at least one piece or a few pieces of wreckage are spotted before they get there -- Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Paula, thanks so much. Also, we have Will Ripley, another CNN correspondent. He is actually on a ship. He is following the "Ocean Shield" out to that search area when we get him live. Of course, we'll connect you to him, because he has some interesting things to say.

Even though the "Ocean Shield" is on the way to that search area, there are no guarantees that it will actually find anything. CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general for the Transportation Department, Mary Schiavo is here to talk more about that. Welcome, Mary.

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: As Paula said, the black box batteries start to die on Saturday. Is it worth sending this ship?

SCHIAVO: I didn't hear that. Say that again.

COSTELLO: Is it worth it to send this ship to that search area because we really don't know if the black boxes are there.

SCHIAVO: Yes, it is worth it, because they can't just sit and wait. Sometimes in investigations, you need a little luck on your side. Frankly, sending them out without detailed, pinpoint areas to search, they are going to leave a little luck. You can't leave that equipment sitting on the shore. If there is any chance at all they can find it, they have to do it.

I agree with the previous commentator, you really need to narrow the search area, because it's just too big of an area for them to literally, as they call it, mow the ocean. They can start and starting is better than not starting.

COSTELLO: So once the ship gets to this area, which is the size of New Mexico or Poland, what's the first order of business?

SCHIAVO: Well, they have a grid. It is like they have divided up their search area kind of like a patchwork quilt. They take each one of the squares and they go back and forth with the pinger finder and literally tow it behind the boat and it is kind of like sewing up the quilt. They do square by square, area by area. They are not going to cover all the squares in the quilt of ocean, if you will, but they can at least start and they will do them one by one very methodically until either have exhausted the squares or have exhausted the search.

COSTELLO: So the planes will be in the sky looking for any debris. We know the debris moves with the tide. Is the debris of any use for that ship looking for the black boxes?

SCHIAVO: Yes. The debris can still be very, very important. If they find debris, they can calculate perhaps with the currents. Here they say the currents aren't so ferocious and they don't take the debris quite as far as other areas of the ocean. So that they will give them a better area in which to look.

And so then what they will do with the debris is then calculate the tides and the currents and tell that ship with the towed pinger locator where to locate and start looking there. The wreckage is vitally important and would really help on finding the black boxes. But without wreckage, they just have to keep looking anyway. Hopefully, we'll find at least something to go on.

COSTELLO: Hopefully so. But what if they don't detect any ping then what?

SCHIAVO: Well, it is entirely possible that they won't. There have been issues with how the batteries are stored and that would affect battery life. There is an issue if they have fallen very deep into the ocean. If it is on one side of an underwater mountainous, it might not pick it up on the other side. There have been some accidents where the pinger didn't start at all anyway. It is not a given they are going to have the sounds.

If they are there and I would say, you known, 3/4 of the time in a water accident, the pingers go off. Certainly, they are out there looking for it to the extent that they end up in the right square and can find it. The wreckage would put them. They will be able to get on top of it if they find wreckage.

COSTELLO: Mary Schiavo, thanks for your insight as always.

I want to bring you back out to the Indian Ocean now because we have been talking about that high-tech Australian ship, the "Ocean Shield" now on the way to that search area equipped with a U.S. Navy ping detector. Will Ripley is on a vessel behind the "Ocean Shield". What is it like out there, Will?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Yes, we are going so quickly, the "Ocean Shield" is now out of our sight. It is very determined to get to this search area in the Indian Ocean. There is a good reason why. There is just over a week left in battery life on the data recorders on Flight 370. They have this great technology. This underwater microphone that can listen for the pings, but a very limited amount of time to search a very large area, Carol.

And because the search zone still is so large, there is a lot of concern this technology really won't be effective because we don't really know where to start looking in an area the size of Poland. Still no confirmed debris from the airliner just yet.

So this trip, this really has so many meanings. A lot of people are looking at the "Ocean Shield" as our last hope to solving one of the greatest mysteries in modern aviation. We are no closer today to zeroing in on where the wreckage might be.

COSTELLO: So you're out on the open water. I just wondered what it was like out there? We hear how rough the seas are. Tell us about that.

RIPLEY: Here in Covert Sound where we are, the weather conditions are pretty good. Water that's 100 feet deep, light waves. You get out on the Indian Ocean, especially when you get out to where this search zone is 1,100 miles of the coast of Australia, Carol, you have waves that are several stories high. The depth of the ocean goes down up to 16,000 feet. It is about 14,000 feet in the search area. That's incredibly deep.

This is a mountainous, mountainous ocean floor, some of the deepest oceans in the whole world. Not to mention the weather that can turn from sunny and nice to horrific the next moment. I don't know if I have time to introduce you to the captain. If I don't, I can wrap it up. He has been out there and can tell you about it.

Captain, tell us what you were telling us about the ocean conditions and how quickly they can change. It was fascinating what you were saying.

RAY RUBY, CAPTAIN, DAWN UNDER MARINE CHARTERS: One minute you are out there in dead calm weather, people think it is lovely. The next thing you can have the waves over the top of your boat and everyone is sick. It is really hard to control. So you cannot tell the weather, even at a forecast perfect weather like today. They forecast 25 knots and here it is about 8-10 knots.

RIPLEY: It can either work for or against you. This is Captain Ray Ruby, by the way, who is manning this charter vessel that we have been working on. There could be a ship pretty close to you that you can't see. That's how choppy the seas can get out there.

COSTELLO: Thanks so much, Will Ripley and thanks to you, Captain Ray. We appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, for the first time, we are hearing from the family of one of the flight attendants on board Flight 370. His father says he is struggling to explain it all to his children. That story next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Malaysian authorities holding what they call a high-level briefing for grieving families. They say the briefing will include international experts including experts from China who will update the families on the investigation. Perhaps too little too late for these families who still believe Malaysia is hiding information.

This candlelight vigil was held before today's regular briefing for family members in Beijing. Steve Wang, whose mother is one of the passengers, organized it. Chinese relatives were also sending up prayers at a Buddhist temple in Kuala Lumpur. Families traveled from Beijing to the Malaysian capital to be closer to the investigation.

We have heard from passengers loved ones but little from the relatives of crew members. Now, for the first time, the husband of a flight attendant is speaking out about how he is struggling with what to tell his children. He sat down with CNN's Paula Hancocks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fungwa Yong's 10- year-old daughter and 4-year-old son keep asking where she is. Eighteen years as a Malaysia Airlines flight attendant, she was working aboard MH-370.

LEE KHIM FATT, HUSBAND OF MH370 FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Mommy is going to take a bit longer to come home this time. I even promised them, I'm going to bring her home. I have no idea where she is now. Now, I'm not sure whether I can bring her home.

HANCOCKS: Lee Khim Fatt asked me what he should tell his daughter. He says she is caring, loving. He speaks in the present tense.

FATT: I am still hoping for God to create a miracle. What we want is the true story.

HANCOCKS: Showing me mobile photos of his wife, he tells me he is angry at the way he has been treated. His wife was part of the cabin crew. He feels the airline tells the media more than what it tells him. He gets most of his information from televised press conferences, part of the reason he has hired a lawyer.

MANUEL VON RIBBECK, ATTORNEY FOR FLIGHT ATTENDANT'S HUSBAND: It is not their fault that this happened to the plane. Therefore, they have to be compensated for their damages.

HANCOCKS: Lee and Fung were together for 20 years. He says they were happy. Now, she is lost. Lee says he has lost all direction. Paula Hancocks, CNN, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: We will have more in the search for Flight 370 in just a minute. But first, people run for cover as North Korea and South Korea exchange artillery fire. So what does this mean for the United States? What does it mean for the Korean Peninsula? We'll be right back.

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COSTELLO: We'll get back to the investigation of Flight 370 in just a minute. But first, artillery fire between North and South Korea this morning. It came after North Korea suddenly announced it would conduct live fire drills in the area. South Korea responded by firing 300 artillery shells into North Korean waters.

The exchange of artillery fire for South Koreans living in the area to run for cover. It comes on the heels of North Korea hinting at more nuclear testing. CNN's Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, is here to tell us more. Good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. I think the pictures are pretty coincidental but timely. About 13,000 U.S.-South Korean and allied troops in South Korea conducting exercises as this latest violence broke out. A lot of worry that North Korea is entering another provocation cycle. They announced these live fire exercises. Their artillery shells fell in the waters of South Korea's western coast. An area that has seen a lot of disputes in the past. Even as these exercises you see the American V-22s and amphibious vehicles right there. Even as these western exercises were taking place.

The question really is, how far is North Korea going to go with all of this? Will there be more provocations and what will happen next? This comes one day after North Korea suggested it might conduct another nuclear test -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I wanted to ask you more about that. North Korea did lob that verbal bomb at the United States and said, quote, "We would not rule out a new form of a nuclear test aimed at strengthening our nuclear deterrents. The U.S. had better ponder over this and stop acting rashly." What do they mean?

STARR: Yes. Well, that's always a question with North Korea? What do they mean? There is a couple of thoughts out there. You know, the big worry about their nuclear program is that they make a significant leap forward to develop and be able to deploy a miniaturized nuclear device. Why is that so important? You have to miniaturize a nuclear device to put it on the front end of a ballistic missile. That's what delivers a nuclear weapon to its target.

It is that miniaturization that concerns the U.S. very much. That they've been able to make that additional leap forward. They are also working on a number of other technologies in their nuclear program. Right now, no real indication about what they are talking about and still the question, is it all a lot of rhetoric or is this actually the beginning potentially of a new provocation cycle from North Korea -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Barbara Starr reporting live from the Pentagon this morning. There are new fears, landslide search crews are handling contaminated debris as they look for victims. Fire officials say hazardous household items in the wreckage could spike cases of dysentery and tetanus. Thirty people are still missing nine days after a mile of mud toppled from the Washington mountain side. The death toll went up overnight to 21. Rain has also been a big problem. Search crews are hoping the forecast holds and today drier weather. We'll keep you posted.

You have until midnight tonight to sign up for Obamacare. Starting tomorrow, anyone who is not covered by the Affordable Care Act or private insurance could face a tax penalty. There were several snags and glitches with the web site over the weekend, but anyone that starts an application by today, but is unable to finish it will get a few extra days before they are penalized.

Federal safety regulators may have missed several chances to fix the problem blame for 13 deadly crashes. A new congressional report indicates that investigators noticed faulty ignition switches in GMs vehicles back in 2007, but the auto maker did not recall more than 2 million vehicles until in this year. GM's new CEO is set to testify before Congress tomorrow. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Malaysia says it has nothing to hide in the disappearance of Flight 370. But relatives are not convinced. We'll talk about that next.

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COSTELLO: The search is over for today and the ongoing quest to find the missing Malaysian airliner. Nothing significant turned up today at least as far as debris is concerned. Australia is leading the search effort in the Indian Ocean and is vowing to ramp up efforts as the mystery enters its fourth week. CNN's Atika Shubert spoke exclusively with the Australian prime minister.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It has been four weeks now. Still, no sign of the plane. How confident are you of the information you are getting, that you are searching in the right place?

TONY ABBOTT, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: It's the best information we have. It's the best analysis that we can get. It is the most professional search that can be mustered.

SHUBERT: You are confident in the information you are getting and that you are searching in the right place?

ABBOTT: We are searching a vast area of the Indian Ocean. This is a very, very difficult task. It is far more difficult than the search for the Air France aircraft in the Atlantic Ocean a few years ago, because we had very precise information as to where that aircraft had come down. We have just got very general information about where this aircraft has come down. Nevertheless, we are giving it the very best shot we can. If anyone can find this aircraft, it's us.

SHUBERT: It is a tremendous effort. There are ten planes in the sky today, many ships. It is also exhausting every day. How long can this be sustained realistically?

ABBOTT: The effort is ramping up, not winding down. We'll have more aircraft in the sky tomorrow. We have more ships in the area. So we are ramping this effort up. We owe it to the families of the 239 people on board. We owe it to the anxious governments that want to know what happened to their citizens. We owe it to everyone who travels by air and wants the skies to be safe. We owe it to the whole world, which has been transfixed by this mystery. We owe it to everyone to find out as much as we can.

SHUBERT: I want to ask about the coordination of the search and the investigation. Australia is the coordinator. There has been conflicting information coming from Malaysia. China has been very aggressive suggesting that it might get involved in the investigation. How frustrating is that for you to have so many countries involved what are the challenges?

ABBOTT: Obviously, Australia is leading the search. The legal responsibility for the investigation rests with Malaysia as the flag of the airline that went down. I have offered Prime Minister Najib Razak of Malaysia, the full cooperation of Australia. We've also just appointed Chief Angus Houston, very well respected in the region of water world, as the chief of the coordinating center. So Angus Houston can liaze with the senior officials of all the various countries who have a stake in this.

SHUBERT: How would you categorize then that cooperation or the challenges (inaudible).