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Chinese Media: Ship Detects Pulse Signal; No Confirmation Signal is From Plane; Making Cockpits Safe and Secure; Families Not Allowed to Hear MH-370 Recordings, Others Are; Pilot's Flight Simulator Shows Emergency Landings Practiced; Chronicle of MH-370 Mystery

Aired April 05, 2014 - 17:00   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Brianna Keilar in for Don Lemon. And a couple of potentially major developments are injecting new energy into the search for the Malaysian airliner that vanished just over four weeks ago in the Indian Ocean. Today, a Chinese search crew picked up a minute and a half of pings on the exact frequency used by emergency beacons attached to airplane flight data recorders.

Now, nothing is confirmed, and so far nothing links these particular pings to flight 370 but the pulses were reportedly were detected near the new search area. In the words of one of our analysts, it is not out of the question. Also today from the air, Chinese searchers spotted a field of floating white objects about 60 miles from where those pings were picked up. Now, here is the time problem though. If a pinger still is working in the water somewhere, it probably won't be for very much longer. Its batteries are designed to operate for 30 days, maybe a few days more than that, and that time is almost up.

So it's now 5:00 in the morning in Western Australia. Headquarters of the multinational search mission. Planes will fly again when the sun comes up, about an hour and a half from now. The ships trying to find that pulse signal again won't have to wait for the sun though.

CNN senior international correspondent Matthew Chance is in Perth, Australia. Matthew, first we heard that search coordinators have had trouble contacting the boat where the searchers heard the pulse signal. Is that still the case?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is. It's been one of the frustrations of this whole potentially significant development because what the Australian led search coordinators have been trying to do is contact that Chinese vessel that apparently detected these pulses from under the water to get some more details on exactly what they heard, exactly what the frequency was, exactly what depth they were looking at, all those kinds of factor that would be important in determining whether this is relevant or not to the missing Malaysian airliner.

They haven't managed to get through to that ship which in itself is quite extraordinary. They have been in contact with the authorities, the relevant authorities in Beijing, but it's underlined one of the problems of this very complex international search effort. All the countries that are involved are supposedly answerable to this Central Command Coordination Center here in Perth, but one country only, China, refuses to engage in that process, and the ships and the airplanes that operate under the Chinese flag, they're relaying their information not here to Perth but to their authorities, to their superiors in China. Only then does Beijing decide what information to pass onto the Australians. And so it's proved to be a source of confusion and a source of friction as well potentially, Brianna.

KEILAR: You can imagine the frustration there, Matthew, as they try to get all this information together and they're right there in the area, but two of the ships that are I guess you could say almost sort of the lead ships in this Australian led effort, the ocean shield, the HMS echo, are they perhaps headed to this area where the Chinese heard the pulse signal? Might they be able to lend some of their resources to see if this really is something?

CHANCE: Well, I mean, the Australians have not announced that's going to take place yet, excuse me. But they're saying they want more information first before they decide what assets to deploy in that region. Remember, this area where this detection has apparently been made is outside of the area that was designated -- that we knew of at least as the search zone. So that's something that's unusual and hasn't been fully explained, whether that means the search area was changed or whether the Chinese are operating unilaterally in that area. It's not clear. But once the Australians here who are leading the search mission have more information, they say, then they will decide on what assets to deploy there. They say at the moment they're considering the possibility of deploying aircraft and the Royal Australian Air Force to that area to take a look at the vicinity. But at the moment that decision even hasn't been made -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right. We'll be watching as the day dawns there in Australia. Matthew Chance in Perth. Thank you so much.

Let's talk now about the latest developments with Jeff Densmore. In his work as director of engineering at Dukane-Seacom, he and his team designed and developed underwater locator beacons for airline voice and data recorders. Dukane-Seacom is also the company that delivered the original flight data recorders carried aboard flight 370.

Jeff, thank you for joining us, and just talk a little bit about given your expertise when it comes to the pingers on voice and data recorders, how confident are you -- are you confident that the Chinese may have heard the pings from flight 370?

JEFF DENSMORE, DUKANE SEACOM DEPARTMENT OF ENGINEERING: Good afternoon, Brianna. We don't know enough yet about the information. The beacon itself, I have one with me here, produces a very repeatable, clear signal. It is a tick that happens once per second at a very fixed frequency. It doesn't stop, it doesn't start. It just is continuous. So if they recorded 90 seconds' worth of audio at that frequency with that repeatable tick, then I would be very confident. So the news is very hopeful at this point.

KEILAR: OK. And if I can, if you wouldn't mind holding up that pinger so that we can see it just for ten seconds or so so that we can kind of see -- it's a pretty small thing. So you were saying this really could be something. The Chinese have said the sound they heard wasn't continuous but it did last for about a minute and a half. I mean, something could -- let's say this is the pinger. Something could obstruct the -- I guess the pinging at some points, right? Do you think even though it wasn't continuous it could still match the description of a pinger?

DENSMORE: Yes. By continuous it doesn't emit a constant tone or frequency. It is a pulse, it goes tick, tick, tick. But it would be a continuous series of ticks. Now, it is an acoustic device. If they got out of range, if something happened to block that acoustic sound for a period of time while they were listening, that was possible as well. But again it's a very repeatable and very specific sound they're listening for.

KEILAR: So what do you think about if the battery is dying? Does it change the sound of the pinging?

DENSMORE: It does not change the frequency or the duration of the pattern. What happens is it starts to lessen in its acoustic energy. In other words, it starts to get more quiet. So as the battery starts to die, the signal strength will become less which means that the range will start to decrease.

KEILAR: OK. The detection range starts to decrease. So, all important information. So I want our panel to ask you some questions, Jeff, but first, let's go ahead and get their take on these latest developments.

With us now, CNN aviation correspondent Richard Quest, CNN aviation analyst Miles O'Brien, and CNN analyst David Gallo is on the phone with us, he's the director of special projects at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. David, to you first, what do you make of these pulses that the Chinese state media is reporting about? I mean, we've heard a times of different things, we've sort of learned not to really get our hopes up, but this is something of particular interest, right?

DAVID GALLO, WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION (on the phone): Well, yes. I think we're all a bit guarded Brianna about getting our hopes up too much, but so far the information that we have fits the description of what we would expect from the pingers. Even the bit about them coming and going because it's fairly deep water. The water depth is between 2,000 meters, that's about a mile -- a little under a mile and a half to about three miles. So I could see it would be easy to hear the pinger and then lose it for a bit but we'll have to wait and see.

KEILAR: OK. So the fact that it wasn't completely continuous you're saying that that doesn't necessarily mean something. Richard, when you look at these latest developments, what are you thinking?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's like everything else involved in this incident, I can give you an argument for and I can give you an argument against. I can put the case that it is the pinger, and I can dismiss it in the next sentence. We're just going to have to wait. It's an awful, you know, tedious answer maybe, Brianna, but we're just going to have to wait for the Australians in the morning to determine if they believe it's credible and sufficiently worth going out and sending planes overhead because here is the problem.

They can't -- they can send planes out almost immediately as soon as it's daylight, but if there's no debris, that doesn't really take us any further. They can look for the white pieces of debris that the Chinese say they found. Ultimately though, you're going to have to get other ships in the area which are qualified and have the equipment necessary to replicate that pinging. And that's why, you know, we are just in that dreadful wait and see moment.

KEILAR: And, Miles, what do you think as you sort of hear this and also if you could talk a little bit about sort of the frustration of the fact that you can't even get in touch it appears. The Australian led mission here, they're not even in touch at this point we just heard with this Chinese ship. I mean, it's raising huge question marks and even though there may be some answers, we're not quite, you know, getting them right now.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, I've detected a lot of I guess China bashing through this. You didn't do it but on twitter there's a lot of this discussion, and we have to be careful about this. Given the acrimony between the way this investigation has been run by the Malaysians and the Chinese families, it probably should come as no surprise to us that the Chinese are operating more or less independently. Couple that with the fact that they probably tasked a lot of fairly secretive space assets on this mission that they don't want to share information about.

So the combination of that, and I would submit to you that if there was an equivalent number of Americans on this particular flight, that the U.S. would also be operating in a rather independent fashion as well. So the question I have right now is, if they do, in fact find the boxes and recover them, where do they go? Do the Chinese keep them and take them to Beijing and analyze them themselves? Would they -- at this point, would they want to turn them over to the Malaysians? There are some interesting questions that come up here.

KEILAR: Sure, and that's a really interesting point you make. I mean, even from the get-go, China obviously is pretty secretive. You can understand many nations being so, but just in general they are more secretive, and even from the get-go there were some satellite images that I think some people thought, you know, they've sort of went outside their comfort zone I guess you would say in sort of releasing some things. There's a great interest there in trying to find out what happened. I'm going to ask our panel to stick around. We're going to take a quick break and be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: As promised, we are going to let our panel ask Jeff Densmore some questions. Jeff again, director of engineering at Dukane Seacom with the company that delivered the original flight data recorders on the missing plane. First, I was to ask David Gallo, we're hearing being this possible debris sighting today. Not too far from where this Chinese ship reportedly has picked up the sound of -- which is consistent with, say, the pinger that could be given out by airplane debris. Is that a coincidence do you think?

GALLO: Well, you know, I do find it sort of surprising that the debris would -- if that's the area where the plane initially impacted the water, if it, in fact, did, it would be a bit surprising that a month later the debris is still hanging around that area. So, again, as in many things here, we'll going to have to wait and see if someone can locate again and verify what that debris really is but I would find it surprising.

KEILAR: Yes, Miles, I mean, we're talking about, what, 60 miles. Is that what we've heard between this debris field and also there have been so many reports of debris. So, we think perhaps this could be a coincidence?

O'BRIEN: My inclination is to discount the debris sightings and David has it exactly right. The debris and the crash site are likely to be very far apart at this juncture. I mean, there might be something but it's less likely that you will have a classic cluster of debris on top of where the plane landed. It's been a month and the ocean currents and so far would send the debris elsewhere.

KEILAR: Yes. I think that sort of makes sense. And, you know, Richard, let's bring Jeff in here. I want to see what you have to say to Jeff Densmore from Dukane Seacom. Any questions that you think he should answer for us?

QUEST: Yes. Jeff, it's Richard Quest in New York. The CEO of Malaysia Airlines says that the batteries on the pinger were due to expire in June of this year. Now, those batteries are normally -- I think have quite a long life span. Should we be concerned that even though they're not at the expiration date, they're pretty close to it, and would they still have had sort of maximum oomph if you like?

DENSMORE: Yes. So our design and validation process does confirm at the end of six years that the device will still operate for 30 days. We do have design margin in there, so when we published, it was at the end of live at the battery at the time it's due for replacement. So, if in fact the battery needs to be replaced in June, it will still operate for 30 days and actually there is a slight design margin above that depending -- we don't have the details of the serial number of the unit that's on board, but we can go back and look at our records. We do test every one of these units before they leave the factory and from that we can determine if, in fact, we can get a little more life out of that than 30 days out of it.

KEILAR: And Miles O'Brien, you watch all of this as a very experienced pilot. What do you want to ask Jeff?

O'BRIEN: I've got a question -- actually, it might be better for David if that's OK.

KEILAR: Sure.

O'BRIEN: Is David still in the mix? All right.

KEILAR: Yes.

O'BRIEN: So, one of our crack producers here, Aaron Cooper looked at that CCTV video, the Chinese video frame by frame and discovered that the device they used is called a Benthos device. Made by Teledyne Benthos. He spoke to one of the senior people there. And basically the device is designed to be carried by a scuba diver to look for a pinger. It's not designed to be towed behind a boat. Part of a problem is, the boat makes too much noise.

And that might be why they use that smaller, seemingly inflatable vessel because they'll be quitters. The question I have for David is, are you familiar with this Benthos device and is it practical, is it logical to assume that they might have heard anything from it given the fact that it is not supposed to be used precisely this way?

GALLO: Yes. Well, Miles, that's the first I heard that it was a Benthos device. I mean, they're our neighbors that would (INAUDIBLE) on Cape Cod. I certainly can find out fairly easily enough. I know many Benthos engineers. But again, I'm going to use the word surprised. I would be surprised but at this point can't really discount anything, but I find it, you know, it's unusual if they would be using that, especially in this water depth.

KEILAR: Yes.

GALLO: Average depth here I believe is about probably somewhere in the vicinity of two miles.

KEILAR: Yes. That's an excellent question, off label use of this to borrow a pharmaceutical term. I guess you could say, hey, gentlemen, great conversation. Thank you so much Jeff Densmore, Richard Quest, Miles O'Brien, David Gallo, thanks to all of you. Really appreciate it.

Now, no one knows for sure at least not yet what happened to flight 370, but there are already calls for better measures to secure the cockpits. Senator Bob Casey is doing just that. And we're going to talk to him about his plan next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: What really happened inside the cockpit of Malaysia airlines flight 370 remains a mystery, but the plane's disappearance has renewed attention on cockpit safety and security, an issue that first gained traction after the 9/11 terror attacks.

Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania has introduced a bill that would require a secondary barrier or a gate to protect flight crews in commercial aircraft. He's joining me now to talk about this bill. Senator, thanks for being with me.

SEN. BOB CASEY (D), PENNSYLVANIA: Thanks, Brianna. KEILAR: And, you know, when you look at this, why do commercial airliners need another barrier? There's already one, but why is a secondary one needed in your opinion?

CASEY: Well, they need it because the evidence shows that there's not enough security even all these years after 9/11. The FAA and others that have looked at this indicated that this kind of secondary barrier would be the most cost-effective, efficient, and effective way to provide a full measure of security. I think it's essential that the airlines discontinue their opposition to this even in advance of passing legislation, but we're going to continue to move forward with our legislation.

KEILAR: And let's bring in now CNN aviation analyst Miles O'Brien as well as Les Abend, also CNN aviation analyst. He's 777 pilot as well. When you look at this which Senator Casey and others were proposing, is there any reason why these secondary security barriers should not be installed in all commercial jets?

LES ABEND, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Absolutely not. This was something that should have really been considered right after 9/11. I think we were thinking in different directions at that particular time so we really as pilots endorsed the flight -- the federal flight officer program, federal flight deck officer program, FFDO program, and rather than thinking of secondary barriers, but it's still part of the program or at least something that we would like to have installed. There's no reason why it can't be. It's going to require some modifications of airplanes, but it's really, really something that should be there because the cockpit is most vulnerable when that door opens and we don't always have FFDOs on board or air marshals.

KEILAR: And, Miles, and the senator talked a little bit about this, the airline opposition to this. Law enforcement is in favor of it. Pilots are -- and their organizations representing them are in favor of it. Airlines not so much. So, what's the holdup here?

O'BRIEN: Well, this is what happens with airlines. They resist anything that they consider, you know, cutting into their bottom line. It's the same reason we can't track all these airliners, is we don't have GPS information going up to satellite. So, this falls right on the regulators. First and foremost, why hasn't the FAA through the rulemaking process made this happen? Why does Congress even have to pass legislation to do what is obvious, what is common sense? I mean, we've all been on planes and seen the poor flight attendant rolling the drink cart across the aisle as if that's going to stop a determined terrorist from charging the cockpit. It's not. We all know that.

And it's scandalous that this many years after 9/11 we don't have some sort of double door system. The Israeli airline has double doors, always have, and they're the gold standard for airline security. And why not use that model? It's not going to cost that much in weight or money. It's a function of the regulatory process breaking down and Congress tries to get in the action, but you got to follow the money in Congress. The airlines are ensuring that this doesn't get out of committee. KEILAR: So, I mean, Senator, you obviously are wholeheartedly behind this. We're hearing words from, you know, Miles O'Brien. It's obvious. And I think one of the things that kind of strikes me is your legislation is named after a United Airlines pilot from your state. Victor Saracini, he was flying united flight 175 which would hijacked and flown into the south tower of the World Trade Center. It's been so long since 9/11, and still this hasn't been pushed through Congress. What are the obstacles here and what are really the chances of getting this measure passed?

CASEY: Well, Brianna, I think they're good. Here are some of the obstacles and I'd say by way of introduction as well that Ellen Saracini deserves all the credit for this being put in front of the American people through legislation. She's the one who pushed this -- he's the one who contacted me --

KEILAR: Victor's wife.

CASEY: Right. That's correct, Victor's wife. So, she's been then a real champion and a great leader on this in an age when people don't think their voice is heard, she's been very effective. But our bill in the Senate was introduced September 11th of this past year, September 11th, '13. So it's -- as legislation goes, it somewhat early in the process. It's been referred to the commerce committee, so it's in the early stages, and I think we can get it passed, and I think the House will pass it as well. But as Miles alluded to it, sometimes you don't have to wait for a bill to be passed for the regulators to push through measures, regulations that would ensure that this happens. But I think it's important to keep the public pressure, and I know that Ellen has been on CNN as well as other networks and interviews she's done and it's critically important we start to highlight this as a major priority.

KEILAR: Well, we're certainly glad to highlight it today talking to you. Senator Bob Casey, appreciate you being with us. Miles O'Brien, Les Abend, thanks to you guys as well.

Now, passengers on flight 370 have been ruled out as suspects in the plane's disappearance but the crew members still haven't been completely cleared. And today, an interesting move by investigators when it comes to those cockpit recordings. We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: A quick update on the search for flight 370. A Chinese ship has reportedly detected a 90-second stream of pings consistent with an airliner's so-called black box, but it's too soon to say whether they are linked to the missing plane. The Chinese also report one of their search planes detected white objects floating in the ocean near the search area. Previous objects turned out to be trash or other debris not significant to this investigation.

Meantime, investigators have played the recordings of flight 370's air-to-ground conversations for friends but not the families of the pilot and first officer in an effort to identify the speaker. For the first time, people who are non-investigators are listening to the recordings of the final conversations from the cockpit of flight 370.

CNN's Joe Johns joining me from Kuala Lumpur.

Joe, good to see you. And just why are they letting these recordings play for people besides the families who are so desperate to hear them?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, you're right, Brianna. It's a very curious fact. And, you know, this detail that actually came after the news conference here in Kuala Lumpur that they're allowing the friends, perhaps even other pilots, to listen but not the family members as a courtesy. The truth is this is because this is still viewed as a criminal investigation until the evidence proves otherwise, Brianna. And the cockpit conversations, even in the United States, are not released if there is a criminal investigation under way. So it's one of those things that law enforcement says they have to do to protect any evidence until each and every person is cleared.

KEILAR: So, and then there's this other development today, Joe. How are Malaysian authorities reacting to it, the news that something has been detected in the water off the coast of Australia, this 90-second string of pings that the Chinese have heard?

JOHNS: Only just a little bit of information, I can tell you. The minister of transport actually tweeted something out saying that there was hope and there was prayers, but certainly wasn't giving any indication that this information was confirmed. I think everyone is waiting for the facts of what happens out there in the water.

We do know that, we've been told at least Chinese officials are apparently sending other ships into the area. The Australians are considering whether they're going to also commit some assets to the very same thing. So we just have to watch and see what the authorities say.

KEILAR: OK. Joe Johns for us in Kuala Lumpur. Thank you so much.

Let's get some analysis of this. As you heard Joe say, a source says investigators have allowed the friends of the pilot and the co-pilot to hear the cockpit conversation in order to determine who was speaking when. Other pilots were also allowed to hear the conversations but no voices have been identified, we believe, at this point.

I'm going to turn to the experts here to get some analysis. CNN aviation correspondent, Richard Quest is here. So is CNN aviation analyst, Miles O'Brien. And Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general at the Department of Transportation. She's now an attorney who represents families and victims in aviation disasters.

Mary, to you first.

Why do you think it took so long to try to figure out whose voice belongs to who? This seems something obvious, something investigators should have done from day one, right? MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST, ATTORNEY & FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION: Well, I think on day one, they just were automatically saying at the beginning that they believed it was the pilot not flying or the co-pilot. And then a week or two into the investigation, we heard they weren't sure, but it is pretty standard to have -- in the United States even, when you're identifying voices.

Now, remember, this is an air-traffic control tape. It's not the cockpit voice recorder. The cockpit voice recorder it's easy to tell because you have microphones in front of each of the pilots so you can tell which is speaking. This being the air-traffic control tapes, it's routine to play it for co-workers or friends to identify. And since technically it's a criminal investigation, you might not want to play it for the family in case they're looking for accomplices, not saying there are any, because there isn't any evidence of that, but that's why they probably wouldn't do that.

KEILAR: So they're not playing it though for so many of the frustrated families. Can you explain why that is, if you agree with that?

SCHIAVO: Well, actually I don't agree with that. In the United States, air-traffic control tapes, as opposed to the cockpit voice recorders, routinely are released. You can get them rather readily. And in the case of a cockpit voice recorder, where there's any chance that any family member is heard on it or the pilots, then it is played but it's played for the family members in a closed room in a secured room. They're not allowed to record it. And if it's used at trial, you have to get a court order. So they're very protective of the cockpit voice recorder but they will play it for families in a closed room but probably not this early in an investigation.

KEILAR: Sure.

And, Miles, when you look at this, no voices have been identified. What if they are not able to discern who is speaking in the cockpit conversation? It sounds like they may not be able to.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, it's a nugget of information. But we do have to be clear on this, and the terms they use are very important. To call this a cockpit voice recording, that's not so. That's at the bottom of the ocean. Nobody has heard that. We're never going to hear that. Those are never played publicly. A separate issue. These are air-traffic control tapes. The quality is significantly degraded compared to the cockpit voice recorder. It can be very difficult to identify voices and who is talking, particularly if they have similar intonation. The only shred of evidence here would be that, you know, standard operating procedure, would be the first officer would be working the radios. If that last call was handled by the captain, what does that mean? Does that mean the first officer has left the flight deck or was the first officer perhaps doing a P.A. announcement or was he setting up some sort of other piece of equipment, twisting the knobs on the radios? There's any number of explanations why the captain might pick up that call. And so I think this might be a little bit of a tempest in a teapot. And if there's an interchange between who handles the radio, that's not a big deal.

KEILAR: OK, not a big deal. There is a protocol but there's lots of reasons why the captain might not be talking or first officer might not be talking.

Richard, when you look at this, tempest in a teapot? You think this is a setback at all that no voices have been identified? Could it have helped if they were?

RICHARD QUESTION, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Whether it could help or not is academic. The fact is you can't. The families, you know, for all the reasons that Mary and Miles have both just said, it is not the protocol to just release -- well, we're talking -- again, you're talking about the air-traffic control tapes. Now, quite often, because in many parts of the world, air-traffic control is monitored by members of the public and put out online. It's one of the more popular apps on iPads and tablets.

Right now, if you wanted to, with the right tablets and the right app, you could be listening to air-traffic control at Kennedy, LaGuardia, Los Angeles, or any one of a host of airports across the United States. And god forbid, there was an incident and you had recorded it, there it would be. So live ATC is possible to be recorded and leaked. And unfortunately, in this case, it wasn't recorded.

Very different from the cockpit voice recorders. This is an instrument of the investigation. It's not to be just bandied about even for family or for those -- or for relatives of those on board. And I think that they have to hold the line on this important point. No withstanding the fact they haven't even got the cockpit voice recorder yet.

KEILAR: Some differing opinions on that.

Richard Quest, Miles O'Brien, Mary Schiavo, thanks to all of you for being with us.

Now, investigators, looking at the simulator of flight 370's pilot, say there were some curious things that they found. We're going to go to -- we're going to go inside of our flight simulator to discuss some of those curious things. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Let's catch you up now on a big development in the search for flight 370. A Chinese ship has detected a so-called pulse signal deep in the Indian Ocean near that arc where authorities believe the plane may have gone down. This signal could lead teams to the airliner's black boxes, could, or it could be nothing. The same ship picked up a signal Friday but it lost it before it could be recorded.

This information coming on the heels of flight data obtained from the pilot's personal flight simulator that he used prior, pretty close, prior to this whole event a month ago. It reveals that he practiced emergency landings as well as other scenarios. Let's go live now to CNN's Martin Savidge and Pilot Mitchell Casado inside the flight simulator.

Martin, is this really unusual? Because, as a passenger, I might be thrilled to think that a pilot is actively practicing emergency landings just in case.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, definitely, Brianna. I think it is a very good sign. And all along we've always believed that it was the flight simulator that had key information. In other words, if this had been any kind of clandestine operation, that may have been practiced.

So I'll ask Mitchell, but I think it's obviously a good thing that you find that the scenarios that were practiced were emergencies.

MITCHELL CASADO, PILOT: Absolutely, it's a good thing. It's the whole point of having a simulator, is to practice emergencies that you can't practice or shouldn't practice in the air.

SAVIDGE: Would it indicate you have a conscientious pilot. A man who is concerned about passenger safety and air craft report (ph)?

CASADO: Yes. He's practicing this on his time off. He's not getting paid. This is just his free time. Then ever you have a pilot who is truly concerned, yea.

SAVIDGE: We should point out, Brianna, there are a lot of ways to simulate accidents or emergencies. For instance, like this would be how to simulate a fire. So the fire alarm is going off. And, again, now Mitchell can practice all the procedures he needs to do to get this aircraft, one, down to a level where the passengers could breathe, and maybe you could start venting smoke from the cockpit or, two, you start heading this aircraft back to an emergency landing somewhere on land because, remembering that this would have happened over water. So that's what's ideal for these scenarios, was to practice all of this and never put yourself or the aircraft in any jeopardy -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Certainly, you don't want to. But just in case you want to be prepared. I mean, Martin, as you look at this, let's say that one of these pilots had to execute an emergency landing in this area where they were. How many locations are we talking about where they could have landed, made an emergency landing?

SAVIDGE: Well, if we're talking in the area of where they took off, say, 45 minutes out of Kuala Lumpur, then there were a lot of places. They could have gone either back towards Malaysia or even to Vietnam.

CASADO: Yeah.

SAVIDGE: And it's simple to program those into the flight management system.

CASADO: It's a few key strokes on the computer, Martin. Punch in where you want to go, it tells you the direction to point the airplane, and off you go.

SAVIDGE: But if you're talking anywhere else in the Indian Ocean, it's very limited because it clearly has to be on land, and most of that is ocean out there. But from a vantage point in the aircraft, you could program in just about any airport, assuming it's got a long enough runway?

CASADO: That's right. And in most cases, the airlines actually only program airports in the computer that this particular airplane can land at.

SAVIDGE: So in other words, whatever shows up in the computer is an airport they can set down at -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Sophisticated stuff.

Martin Savidge, thanks to you, as well as Mitchell Casado.

Now, the search for flight 370 has been full of twists and turns, dashed hopes, false leads. Our Jim Clancy has reported on this story from the beginning and he updates the time line just ahead.

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KEILAR: More on the search for flight 370 in a moment.

But first, some of the hardest working Americans who work in the lush fields across California can't even afford to buy the very same produce they pick. This week's "CNN Hero" chooses to live in one of the impoverished communities and working hard to bring health and wellness to the people who desperately need it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARAH RAMIREZ, CNN HERO: Pixley is a small community located in central California. We are in this agricultural rich area. Yet, people who live here and work here are hungry, are impoverished. Some are working in the fields that feed the entire country and they don't have the resources to support them in their health. It is heartbreaking. I can't just watch that and not wonder, is there something more that we could do?

What we do, we gleam mostly from backyards. Today, we are looking at a glean of about 6400 pounds. That's incredible.

My husband and I grew up in Pixley. My parents worked in the field. I had family members that died at very young ages due to chronic diseases like diabetes.

For those of you that are high school students --

Looking at these issues of poverty and obesity, we are deciding how do we provide our resources for our community and home?

We also have a component in our garden that is a U-pick area. Some fruits and vegetables. We really try to teach how to use what we are growing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Peach and cucumber, wow.

RAMIREZ: I want to grow old and I want to grow old in a healthy way. I want that for everybody.

Oh, look.

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: Oh, thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: Each week, we honor a new "CNN Hero," an everyday person like Sarah Ramirez, making a difference. If you want to get in on the action, go to CNNheroes.com to nominate your hero.

More of the search for flight 370 after this.

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KEILAR: It's been four weeks since Malaysia Airlines flight 370 simply vanished. CNN International's Jim Clancy has been reporting from Kuala Lumpur from day one, and he chronicles the twists and turns of this international mystery.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The story of flight 370 began at the arrival gate at Beijing where it was listed as delayed some six hours after it disappeared over the South China Sea.

UNIDENTIFIED CNN ANCHOR: We have breaking news right now. Malaysia Airlines has confirmed that it has lost contact with the plane carrying 287 passengers and 12 crew members. Flight MH-370 was heading to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. It was a Boeing 777 200. It was expected to land at 6:30 local time, but it is almost 9:00 in Beijing time, which means that the plane is over 2.5 hours late.

CLANCY: The confusion, concern and fear at that hour completely predictable. Everyone dreaded the worst, a terrible accident.

AHMAD JAUHARI YAHYA, CEO, MALAYSIA AIRLINES: We have confirmed that this flight, MH-370, lost contact with air traffic control at 2:40 a.m. this morning.

JAMES CHIN, PROFESSOR OF PHYSICAL SCIENCES: Most people initially thought that it was a straight forward crash, and that it would come down somewhere south of Vietnam, and the wreckage would be found very, very quickly, and so a lot of people took a hand's-off approach.

CLANCY: Malaysia waited to reveal details of its own radar that the plane had deliberately reversed course, flying back over the Malay Peninsula on a heading towards the Indian Ocean.

(on camera): How much of a turn back, 20 kilometers, 10?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are still looking at that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are still looking at that.

CLANCY (voice-over): Suddenly, anything was possible. Wild and intricate Internet theories fed fears of an elaborate terror plot led by two young Iranian terrorists who boarded with stolen passports. The only problem, they weren't terrorists. Just trying to begin new lives in Europe.

Suspicion soon shifted to the only people capable of flying the Boeing 777, the pilots. Captain Zaharie Shah, some suspected, had practiced the stealthy turns and changes in altitude on his home flight simulator. But analysis by the FBI of the simulator's data turned up nothing.

No claim of responsibility, and no known ties to terrorism groups among passengers or crews, and no motive supported by evidence. Intricate analysis of satellite handshakes took the search to an area where it likely ran out of fuel. With the plane, all evidence of what really happened on its flight data recorders.

TONY ABBOTT, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: We cannot be certain about the ultimate success of what happened to the MH-370, but we can be certain that we will spare no effort, that we will not rest until we have done everything that we humanly can.

CLANCY (on camera): Who steered the plane off course and why? What happened inside of the cockpit? When did the aircraft go down? And when will we find a trace? There is an abundance of theories colliding with an absence of evidence. After four weeks here, like everyone else, I only have questions and no answers.

Jim Clancy, CNN, Kuala Lumpur.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Brianna Keilar, in for Don Lemon.