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Press Conference from Perth, Update on Search; Search for Flight 370; New Information Leads to Redeployment of Assets

Aired April 05, 2014 - 23:59   ET

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

ANGUS HOUSTON, CHIEF COORDINATOR, JOINT AGENCY COORDINATION CENTRE: And I thought it was very important that you be informed about it because it is like the visual search. We are dealing with identification of whether an acoustic event has anything to do with the downing of the aircraft. Is it -- does it represent that the aircraft went into the sea at this location or not?

And it's the same with the way we prosecute the visual search. The visual search is ongoing. Ships are going to have a look at the white objects that were found in the sea yesterday. And they will be looked at closely and, again, this object, could that have been aboard MH- 370? Or is it something else? And we've done that continuously over the last 30 days with all the visual objects that have been recovered from the search.

Sorry, one at a -- can I just --

REPORTER: I just wanted to know -- (INAUDIBLE) impacted by the (INAUDIBLE).

HOUSTON: So --

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE).

HOUSTON: Well, that's the point. That's what we're investigating. What we are trying to do is establish whether there is -- we have an acoustic event, we have a transmission that has been received by Haixun 01. The job now is to determine what is the significance of that event. Does it confirm or deny the presence of the aircraft locator on the bottom of the ocean? That's what we're doing.

Sorry? Yes. Yes.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) if it is transmitting that frequency, what other possible sources could there be?

HOUSTON: Again, what we've got here are fleeting -- fleeting acoustic events. The one night before last lasted just a very short period of time. The one yesterday afternoon, I think it was 15:47 in the afternoon, was for 90 seconds. That's all we've got. It's not a continuous transmission. If you get close to the device, we should be receiving it for a longer period of time than just a fleeting encounter, but we've got a transmission; we must investigate it and that's the way we work. REPORTER: One more thing. You were talking about satellite discrepancies earlier.

HOUSTON: Yes.

REPORTER: Does that satellite discrepancy -- am I right in thinking you were talking about going back to the Southern Ocean, just to the original area, or in the area of the --

HOUSTON: No, the search area doesn't change at all, but what we get out of the data, the satellite -- this is the Inmarsat satellite. The characteristics of that were such that on reanalyzing the data that has been obtained, some other conclusions have come up, which slightly change the possible profile of the airplane. And they're based on the fact that there might be a slight difference in the air speed that has been calculated. And we're talking perhaps the aircraft went a little bit faster than had originally been calculated on the basis of analyzing the satellite data.

REPORTER: So it would be further north?

HOUSTON: It would be a little bit further south, and that's why we are going into the southern part of the area rather than the northern part.

The search area doesn't change. So it's not a big change, not the sort of changes we had early in the operation, but the area of highest probability we think is now probably in the southern part of the area, pretty close to where Haixun 01 is operating. And that's why we're so very interested in the two acoustic encounters that Haixun 01 has had.

REPORTER: Is Haixun 01 specifically in the area that it had been tasked to it, or was it in its own area unilaterally? And secondly, was Australia aware of this on Friday, and today, and are you disappointed that it was made public before you knew?

HOUSTON: Look, where we've ended up, I believe these -- you know, on a search like this with journalists traveling on ships, airplanes, information will come out, which basically has to be responded to. And I guess that's what happened in these circumstances. I accept the reality of that.

In terms of where Haixun 01 is operating, it is operating in a location that is central to our interests at the moment. OK? It's in the search area we are prosecuting right now. One more question.

REPORTER: You can now confirm that frequency of the signal detected by the Ocean Shield is not (INAUDIBLE) --

HOUSTON: Look, I -- we found out one hour ago that Ocean Shield had found something. We do not have any detail on the encounter at this stage. We just know that there has been an acoustic detection by Ocean Shield, which has highly sophisticated equipment and the word I have got is it's something that needs to be investigated.

So until the investigation is complete -- well, is under way and complete, I'm not prepared to speculate on what it might be or what it might not be. It's very important that, as we go through these leads, we avoid speculation. And that's what I ask all of you to do, because we have the best expertise in the world out there, the best equipment in the world out there, and we need the experts to do their job and, when they have finished their job, we will come back and tell you what the outcome was, OK? And I've undertaken to do that.

One at a time. One at a time.

REPORTER: Is the ROV (ph) going to be deployed by Ocean Shield today?

HOUSTON: Well, we don't know. The one thing that we do in terms of something like this, I'm coordinating all of the activities, all of the activities. But the rescue coordination center, which is part of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, is controlling the search.

Now, the worst thing that could happen is if I reach in and say do this, do that. We have very professional, very highly qualified, expert people running this search. They need to be left to do that. We also have, under the command of Commodore Leavy, an international force of vessels that are well equipped to go out there and do the search. Very professional people from all of the nations involved and they're doing a great job. We just have to be realistic to realize that this is a dynamic environment, and particularly when we go underwater, things are going to take time. And that's just a reality of the environment that we're dealing with.

One last question. Now, over here. This lady hasn't had a question.

REPORTER: From some things we were told (ph) yesterday, it seems that when the events were detected, at that time, the Chinese ship was outside of the focus primary search area.

HOUSTIN: It was on the edge, yes.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE).

HOUSTON: Well, which one? The first one? Well, I would have to take that on notice because we're going back a fair way. But we became aware of it fairly quickly because essentially there was a journalist aboard and we heard about it. Now, almost at the same time, I was informed by the Chinese government that they had found something. So these things happened more or less at the same time.

And then the one that we are reporting today, the second one, we were formally informed about that quite some time ago. So that was -- that came through in absolutely the normal way and I'm completely comfortable with that.

We have been working very closely with all of the governments and forces involved to basically get the best coordination and consultation going that we can, and I spent quite a bit of time with our Chinese friends working on the best way to consult because clearly language is sometimes an issue. And we're actually going to perhaps enhance the number of liaison people up in the coordination center, and we will be getting a Chinese liaison officer into our center to assist with the coordination of the search and making sure that nothing falls through the cracks.

REPORTER: Do you believe China's sharing all its intelligence?

HOUSTON: China's sharing everything that's relevant to this search. Everything.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) couple of hundred kilometers out of the search site where it was supposed to be? On Friday, had it not since been agreed upon after this discovery?

HOUSTON: Where was it?

Perhaps the next -- we'll be having another press conference, probably the next couple of days. I'll come back to you on that.

REPORTER: Appreciate it. It's a really critical question today.

HOUSTON: Yes, but let me just say, though, China has seven ships out there. That's by far the largest fleet of ships out there. They're out there looking for this aircraft, and at the moment the most promising lead appears to be the one associated with Haixun 01. I think we should be focusing on the positives and not start saying, well, are they doing this or are they doing that? I'm very satisfied with the consultation, the coordination that we are building with our Chinese friends. I spent two hours last night with the Chinese ambassador, and we worked out the best way to effect that coordination and consultation for my responsibilities, and I'm very, very happy about that. So we need to concentrate on that, not on, well, was it here or was it there?

One more question and then I'm going.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) the Australian and the Chinese vessels received the three signals without finding any debris above water. Does it suggest maybe the plane went into the water in a whole piece?

HOUSTON: Look, again, we're speculating. We can't speculate. We've got to work on reality and at this stage we have no idea how the aircraft went into the water. Did it go in -- glide into the water? Did it go in vertically? We don't know. That's something that we shouldn't speculate about at this time.

Thank you very much. I'll be back with you in the not too distant future. And, please, come next time. Thank you.

(END LIVE FEED)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: All right. That is the man in charge of this multi-national search, Angus Houston, giving us possibly the most information that we have had about this missing flight so far from any organization, from any individual.

Let's go over some of it for you, and we're going to stay on the air until we get through all of this with our experts, with our investigators and also with our analysts here. Here's one thing he said. He said the investigation team has been informed of a new satellite correction which raises the importance of the southern part of the search area. That's according to Angus Houston, meaning the southern track. Instead of when they moved it a little bit further north on the southern track, they're going to go back down now to maybe a little bit further south.

Also he is saying the Haixun 01, that ping that was detected, he is confirming from the Chinese ship Haixun 01 saying that, the day before yesterday, they heard a frequency, on the frequency, a ping. And then it went away, very short ping. And then a day after they heard it again for about 90 seconds.

Also the new information that we're getting is that the Ocean Shield, when it first got out to the search area, also picked up a ping in the early days, but it was never reported. And he said, addressing why this one from the Chinese ship got ahead of them, he said there was a reporter on board the ship and he is aware of those challenges when you're dealing with the media. A reporter was out there from the Chinese news agency and reported it before he had a chance to confirm it.

So let's bring in my panel of experts here. Les Abend is a 777 pilot and a CNN analyst. Mike Kay, CNN aviation analyst as well, and Lieutenant for the British military as well. Rob McCallum is here, he's a CNN analyst. Richard Quest, of course, our correspondent. Alan Diehl, as well, is a former Air Force accident investigator. Do we have Mary Schiavo? No Mary for this one.

OK, let's go to Richard Quest. Richard, I would venture to say this is the most information we have gotten.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Absolutely. The words to take away from what the air commodore said, he described the Chinese pings as important and encouraging. He said they are -- it is the most important lead, the most promising lead, that they've had so far. And more than that, because of the reengineering of the satellite data to the lower part of the southern corridor, that puts it exactly roughly where the Chinese pings were heard. In other words, you have these pings, you have the satellite data, and the two seem to converge in the same place.

LEMON: Richard Quest, Richard, I want to ask you, because there's some confusion here. The way I heard it was he's saying he got the information 90 seconds before the press conference about -- 90 minutes, excuse me -- before the press conference about the Ocean Shield getting the ping. But the way I understood it is it picked up the ping in the early days, but he's just getting the information. Can you -- did you --

QUEST: No, I think he was talking about the pings on the Chinese vessel. I think he was talking about the Chinese vessel. But in terms of the Ocean Springs (sic), Ocean Seas (ph) I beg your pardon, I think he was just saying he got it now. But I didn't interpret him as saying that they got it sooner than that, but I might have misheard as well. So my interpretation is they just heard about it now and it had only just happened recently.

LEMON: So he said, listen, any of this -- it still can't be verified but, again, this is the most information they've gotten. He said this is an important and urgent lead, but he also urged caution as well. It's a very big ocean, a very big search area.

QUEST: His words were, "We must treat this carefully, it's important and encouraging." And then he described what Ocean Seas (sic) has heard as a crucial event. And that's why HMS Echo is on the way; the British warship will be there in 14 hours roughly. Ocean Shield will stay where she is at the moment to investigate the event, and if that turns out to be nothing, 26 hours or so we'll be over the Chinese pings.

So an enormous amount of information coming out. Some promising leads both from Ocean Shield and from the Chinese. I think, Don, the important thing of what he said, time and again, is we will investigate every event. We've got a transmission, we must investigate it.

LEMON: Michael Kay, he said hearing this for 90 seconds or a minute or what have you, you still must investigate it. But one would think, he said, if it is indeed the data recorders, you would hear it for a longer period of time.

LT. COL. MICHAEL KAY, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Absolutely, Don. I think this was a calm, measured and supremely effective response by Air Chief Marshal Houston. And what he did in this press conference, he hit a number of critical points and I'm looking towards the families and loved ones at this point.

No. 1, he confirmed the ping from the Chinese news agency wasn't verified. I think that's very important just to reduce everyone's expectations. He then said that he was actually talking to the RCC in China, the rescue coordination center, in China. I think that's important because we've been talking about the importance of establishing that communication with China, of bringing in that information. He then said, and I think it was aimed towards the families, that all credible leads will be followed up. And again that reassures the families they're not going to gloss over this, so that's great. And then finally, the importance of this really came through when he said he was going to redeploy what we spoke about it earlier on this evening, about redeploying those assets. And I think that's what he's doing. And that to me places a real importance of just how significant this ping is.

LEMON: Rob McCallum, what should we read into the new satellite information?

ROB MCCALLUM, CNN AVIATION ANALYST (via telephone): You know, I was very encouraged to hear him talk about the fact that they have reinforced their confidence in the search area overall and now they're honing to different areas within that. And within that, again, now we have this one and possibly two acoustic leads, underwater leads. So overall a very promising picture. And although there will be a lot of ships and a lot of aircraft out there tomorrow working over the area overall, what's so seductive about the acoustics is that, of course, if it is a genuine positive return from a pinger, there is the absolute jackpot.

LEMON: Rob, are you done? I'm sorry, someone was talking to me. Are you done?

MCCALLUM: Yes, I am.

LEMON: Oh, thank you. Let's go now to CNN's Matthew Chance, who is in Perth at the Pearce Air Base where this press conference was held. Matthew, give us a reaction from there.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Just to clarify some of those points you were discussing earlier, there were three acoustic events, as they were described by the Air Chief Marshal Houston. Two of them, the Chinese vessel in that area, one of them 36 hours ago, another one 24 hours later. That was the 90 seconds of regular pinging that we've been reporting on for so long over the course of this day.

The third acoustic event was the one that is currently being investigated by the Australian vessel, the Ocean Shield. That's the event that Mr. Houston said he only learned about 90 minutes ago, and that's what's delaying the redeployment of the Ocean Shield to the area where the Chinese pings were detected.

And there's been another deployment as well. HMS Echo, it's equipped with similar high technology that can monitor the subsurface areas. It can look for objects under the water. That will take 14 hours, he said, from this point now to reach that area where the Chinese detected those pings.

So we've seen a sort of quite major redeployment of resources as a result of this information that's come out from the Chinese, including the two most high-tech ships, the Ocean Shield and the HMS Echo and an Australian aircraft, or Australian aircraft, didn't say just one. They've also been deployed presumably because they can get there much faster than the ships to try to investigate these acoustic events that the Chinese have detected. So not confirmation at all that this is where the lost aircraft is, but obviously a big step towards narrowing the search zone potentially.

LEMON: The information we've got is the information we've got. Remember that's what we heard at the last press conference. And now?

LES ABEND, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: That was my recollection, exactly what you said. And what's interesting is that they found a different disposition to the satellite which refines the area more, and we thought, hey, this is all we have. And now it's even better. And the nice thing or the interesting thing is is closer to where the Chinese vessel found --

LEMON: If you're just joining us now, the most information we have gotten from investigators in this search for missing Flight 370. We're hearing that there have been three acoustic events. That is confirmed by the man who is heading up this search in Australia. Also, they're moving assets in the area where they have found acoustic pings and also readjusting the search area because of new satellite information. More details after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: We're back now live here on CNN with our breaking news. I'm Don Lemon. The breaking news we're getting is three acoustic events that have been picked up by search teams out on the Southern Indian Ocean. That is according to the man in charge of this search, Angus Houston in Perth, Australia, holding a press conference just moments ago announcing that information. Also saying that theey were able to update or reconfigure the satellite information as to put them closer to the possible impact zone and closer to the area where the plane possibly landed or crashed into the ocean.

I want to bring in my panel of experts now. A lot of them are joining us. First I want to go to Alan Diehl, who is in Albuquerque, New Mexico, former Air Force accident investigator. Alan, is this promising to you? This is by far the most information we've gotten in this search.

ALAN DIEHL, FORMER AIR FORCE ACCIDENT INVESTIGATOR: Yes, it is, Don. It looks like the data's converging now. We've got to be a little careful about group think here, but right now the evidence seems to point towards the Chinese vessel location and we should know in 14 or 18 hours after the Echo gets on scene.

LEMON: Can you talk to me about, especially as an accident investigator, I asked about the satellite information and no one's really given me a clear answer on that. He said that they were able to -- let me get the exact words here. "The investigation team has been informed of new satellite correction," Alan, "which raises the importance of the southern part of the search area," according to Angus Houston.

What do you make of that? Wait, hang on, before you answer that, he said, "Air and search areas will be adjusted because of that." Go ahead, Alan.

DIEHL: I was going to say, Don, to me it sounds like they went back and double-checked, they've got a lot of time to do this now, and discovered that maybe the speed estimates might have been a little bit off and that then changes the path and how far the aircraft might have gone. But it all kind of points to that area where the Chinese vessel is located, at least in that general area.

So that is encouraging that these two independent sources seem to be pointing -- no one's saying x marks the spot yet, but it just may turn out that way.

LEMON: We have been watching the weather closely. That has had a huge effect on these search operations over the past month, especially in the area, in Australia, the southern Indian Ocean. Matthew Chance, the weather there today appears to be holding up for the searches and getting these ships turned and, especially in the Ocean Shield is going to move in the direction of those pings where the Chinese vessel heard the pings, or if it is going to stay where it is, where it reportedly picked up a ping as well.

CHANCE: Yes, I mean, it seems that the weather conditions are fair enough; at least they're not really terrible and it's not really inhibiting the various ships and the planes from carrying out some work at least.

But to just go back over what the redeployment will consist of, first of all, they're going to be flying Australian Royal Air Force planes across the area. They can get there quickly, they can try and monitor any acoustic activity that's there. But of course to deploy the ships it takes much longer; it's going to be at least 14 hours from when that press conference was held to when the HMS Echo can get there, much longer for the Ocean Shield

LEMON: Matthew Chance, hold that thought. The reason I've done that is it's the bottom of the hour and I have to reset for our viewers.

I'm Don Lemon. I want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world, especially those who are watching us on CNN International.

In the southern Indian Ocean, more pings, more pulses, and possibly more clues from deep beneath the surface as to the location of Malaysia flight 370. We heard a short time ago from the top level of the multi-national search mission. They are sending two ships to the part of the ocean where a Chinese ship reported hearing something this weekend.

What is that something? Nobody knows yet. But the search commanders intend to find out. I want you to listen to Angus Houston, the head of the search mission. And this convinced him to take the Chinese reports seriously.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOUSTON: This morning, we were contacted by the Chinese authorities and advises that Haixun 01 had, late yesterday afternoon, redetected the signals for 90 seconds within just two kilometers of the original detection.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So this is what's heading to the place where the Chinese ship heard those pings. The Ocean Shield, an Australian navy ship with a very high-tech U.S. navy detection device on board headed to that area. Maybe it's going to stay right now in the area where it is because it, too, picked up a ping in its search location. And once they investigate that, then it will possibly move to the new search area where the Chinese ship picked up two pings.

Also moving that way, the British navy ship HMS Echo. That ship is about half a day away. Search officials stopped short saying that they were optimistic about any of these leads since so many promising clues have turned into nothing over the past four weeks.

I think they said that they were optimistic, because as a matter of fact, Angus Houston said this is important and urgent lead. But he said we have to be careful with it. I think that's optimism. But Angus Houston did call these acoustic events and important and encouraging lead.

Searchers are cautiously encouraged by the latest developments here. But the families of the 239 people on board that plane, well, they are still in anguish.

So I want to go now to Kuala Lumpur and we're going to talk to CNN's Nic Robertson.

Nic, something unusual happened this weekend. This new information was given. They also let the recordings from the tower to the cockpit, they let people hear them, but it wasn't the family members.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, it wasn't. It was the friends and the colleagues of the first officer and the caption on board the aircraft allowed to hear the recordings because, of course, keep (ph) the investigation who gave that final communication? Was it the first officer or was it the captain saying "Good night, Malaysian 370"?

Not clear why they didn't allow family members to hear it. We know this is a very close held investigation, perhaps worried about leakage. Of course, perhaps, they may realize that it could distress the -- the family members further, realizing the relevance and role that their loved one played in all of this. So that may have been a concern.

Also hearing concern from Angus Houston there in his press conference about the families of the passengers on board the aircraft and, indeed, of course, of the crew on board as well saying that people should be cautious about getting too far ahead of the information here, saying that it is possible to cause distress for those families. And he wanted to avoid that.

But also saying, and this will bring heart to the families, that they will continue to track down any piece of information. There was a sense there as well from him. Although he said he was comfortable with the fact there were journalists on board the one that revealed the information perhaps just a little bit ahead of him. He was comfortable with that fact. He's very diplomatic.

He also went on to say that he met with the Chinese ambassador yesterday evening for two hours. And he said, "I'm comfortable with the cooperation that we are building, that we are building with the Chinese." And he also went on to say that an additional Chinese liaison officer may be deployed to the Australian control center for the search that is going on.

So there is a sense there that he, by trying to sort of, if you will, now coral and contain extraneous information coming from journalists aboard ships, whichever ships -- in this case, the Chinese. He is trying to avoid causing unnecessary distress to the families who are waiting for that information, would rather he would seem coordinated through his officers. So when the -- offices. So when the information is received, it is coordinated, it is checked, it is verified, then it is released. So he seems to be going to great lengths to our meeting with the Chinese ambassador last night to do that, Don.

LEMON: Robertson in Malaysia. Nic, thank you. We're going to get to Perth when we come back. Our Paula Newton inside that press conference. She'll tell you what she heard coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOUSTON: At the moment, at the moment, the data we have does not provide a means of verification. We have to -- we have to do further investigation on the site itself. And that is why all of these resources are being moved to that particular location.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Angus Houston, the man in charge of the search in Perth, Australia, holding a press conference just a short time ago talking about three acoustic events, three acoustic events. Two different ships picked up in the southern Indian Ocean and also informing the media about satellite information that they're getting reconfigured satellite information that's putting them into a -- new search -- not a new search area, but into a more refined area part of a search area that they already have.

Let's go to Paula Newton. Paula Newton was inside that press conference. And Paula, many times on television you can't really see the demeanor of the people who are holding press conferences. Was there something different about their demeanor? Was it optimistic or positive?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Definitely a new level of energy I would say in there. I've been to a handful of briefings throughout the last week, and this was clearly different.

As much as Chief Houston wanted to be cautious -- and he wants to do that for the families. He doesn't want to get their hopes up. They've definitely moved into what Chief Houston calls a new dynamic phase of this investigation.

They have signals. They have things that they need to investigate. And even more so, they are quite excited about also Ocean Shield picking up that last acoustic signal just in the last hour or so.

This has moved this investigation into a whole new arena. You know, Don, for days we've been talking about finding debris. And while that would have been good, this is much more optimistic, the fact that they have leads from signals to investigate. Caution, again, as you guys have been doing for hours now, this does not mean that they found the black boxes. They need to work to verify. Chief Houston also made it clear they are really running against the clock. It's not to be lost on anyone. We are 30 days, the advertised life span of those pingers is up today. Of course, they can go on for another eight or 10 days, but will they? And that's why it's so important that these two other ships, which will be able to verify the signal, will get there.

Don, we're still talking, though, at least 24 to 48 hours away at the earliest in terms of getting some of that verification.

LEMON: Paula, I want to ask because he didn't mention it in the press conference, but it was your sense he said, you know, listen, I understand that we have media involved. And so, those are the perils. But did you sense -- did you get a sense of frustration that this was released not by him but by a member of the Chinese media? Because he seems very coordinated, very organized.

NEWTON: Yeah, he definitely has the interest of the family top of mind. I can tell you that from having spoken to the families who've spoken to him. It couldn't have been good for him to hear that that information without context. And that's the problem.

But he's resigned to it, Don. They've got a reporter on board ship there. The Chinese news agency did release that information, and at least the information was accurate. It wasn't a false lead, something they have to investigate.

I can tell you, look, they've put a new liaison person up at headquarters, a Chinese liaison person, to hope this doesn't happen again, that they're able to have some control of the information that comes out. And on top of that, he spent several hours with the Chinese ambassador here last night trying to get this straight.

He made it very clear, Don, and something that shouldn't be lost on anyone, the Chinese are the ones with the most assets out there. It's the ships, seven of them. They've got planes in the air. We've seen the Illusion (ph) come over the skies here several times -- and about seven helicopters. I mean, they are conducting quite a thorough search on their own. And he certainly said it, underscored it, they are the ones that have come up with the strongest lead so far.

LEMON: Paula Newton inside that press conference in Perth. Paula, we appreciate that.

My panel of experts on the breaking news right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Breaking news coming out of Australia just a short time ago from the man heading up the investigation. Let's let him explain.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOUSTON: Well, we had three separate acoustic events. Two with Haixun 01, and we had another one with Ocean Shield. We're treating each of them very seriously. We need to ensure before we leave those areas of detection that there is no connection to MH-370.

Well, this is late breaking news. I thought it was important that we -- we're totally transparent with you. I just want you to know that the search is a dynamic thing. Things are happening all the time. And this broke this morning. This broke, what, an hour ago?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An hour ago, sir.

HOUSTON: And I thought it was very important that you be informed about it because we are -- it's like a visual (ph) search. We're dealing with identification of whether an acoustic event has anything to do with the downing of the aircraft. Is it -- does it represent that the aircraft went into the sea at this location or not?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So he's talking about acoustic events, too, from a Chinese ship the Haixun 01and one from an Australian ship the Ocean Shield in two different parts of the search area.

With me now is CNN aviation analyst Michael Kay, a retired Royal Air Force pilot and former advisor to the U.K. defense ministry.

Les Abend, a CNN aviation analyst and a Boeing 777 captain.

And Alan Diehl is a former Air Force accident investigator.

So Alan, what needs to happen now that we've gotten this information? Happened (ph) for the search commanders, for the people who are out there. What's next?

DIEHL: Well, it looks like we're waiting for the Echo to, you know, make it to the location of the Chinese vessel. When that happens, we may start getting answers. You heard the figure 14 hours in transit. That's going to be a very significant development.

And remember, if the Chinese detected this twice, it's probably a fairly small haystack. And we also have to keep in mind, he said the water was four and a half kilometers deep. Well, that's three miles. And the range of these pingers is only guaranteed to be a little over a mile. So I'm sure these signals are very faint, and they need something like the Echo and its resources to go deep and get a better fix on the potential location of those pingers.

LEMON: And Alan, he did say, you know, usually if it is a pinger, that it would be consistent, that they would hear longer -- for a minute or -- or 90 seconds.

DIEHL: I think he and other people have certainly caveated the discussion about the effects of thermal layers and -- there may even be some geometry involved here with the pinger perhaps being the black box being on, you know, the side of a hill or something. And as the vessel moves, it could shift around enough so that there could be some dampening of the acoustic signals.

But this is -- this is still quite promising, to my way of thinking, Don.

LEMON: What else could it be, Les? Because they picked that particular frequency because it's, you know, not usual in that part of the ocean? But could -- can it be sea life or --?

ABEND: I mean, that's not my expertise. But from what I understand, that's all it's got to be at this point. I mean, what else would be out there to -- to emit that kind of signal? I don't know.

LEMON: Michael?

KAY: I'm cautiously optimistic, Don. I mean, I get the sense from this --

LEMON: But can it be -- could it be anything else, is what I'm saying. Could it be a number of other things? Because there's a reason they picked this particular frequency.

KAY: I think it's fairly unique, if I'm honest. But I go back to the equipment. It was a hydrophone that picked it up. But it did pick it up on the surface. And if it's three miles deep, I'll be getting the p-8s over there, the p-3s, and I'll be dropping sonobuoys into the water to pick anything up.

LEMON: All right, more on our breaking news right after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Back now with the breaking news and my panel of experts.

Michael Kay, you have said it would be highly unusual to find the black boxes without finding any debris. And we must remember in this press conference, he did say they saw some white objects as well that they were taking a look at.

KAY: Yeah, absolutely. Again, no smoke without fire. And almost implausible to find black boxes without a debris field first. It really would be hitting the jackpot. And I'm not convinced that we will find the black boxes first. I would be delighted, clearly.

The big thing that I think comes out of this is we've got the Ocean Shield verifying an acoustic event at the moment, and then we've got this other acoustic event that the Chinese news agency reported today. I'd be very interested in the distance between those two because, speaking with Les on the commercial break, I think it's one or the other. I don't think they can be, you know, joined together in terms of the black boxes having split by a significant amount of distance.

LEMON: Go ahead.

ABEND: Yeah, I mean, the distance, it just doesn't make sense for one black box to be that far apart from another black box. So, you know, it's going to be one or the other.

LEMON: Alan, do you agree with that? DIEHL: Absolutely. I -- I haven't seen the diagrams, but the -- or the maps, but it sounds like --

LEMON: Alan Diehl, sorry, we're having a problem with his shot -- agreeing with our two expert analysts here that your thinking is going to be part of the same thing, right?

ABEND: I think we're gonna -- honestly, I think that we're going to find that the Chinese vessel, it is -- they've already indicated that it's closer to the area of higher probability. I have a feeling that we may just find a spurious signal from the Ocean Shield, and they'll be underway to verify the Chinese vessel. That's my guess.

LEMON: I think it's very interesting -- yeah, I think it's very interesting that, you know, of course he is warning caution here.

ABEND: Of course.

LEMON: But, you know, that assets were being moved and obviously they think something is happening. Otherwise, they would not move those assets. You say --

KAY: Well, we spoke about this before. I think that is the absolute emphasis of the significance of what he's saying is exactly that.

LEMON: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: A lot of information coming out Perth, Australia. And I think a fair way to describe it is cautious optimism. There have been three acoustic events picked up in the southern Indian Ocean according to investigators. Also, they have gotten new information from reconfigured satellite information to hone in better on the search area. And now, they are moving assets in that area where they picked up that acoustic ping from what possibly are black boxes from airplanes.

I'm Don Lemon. I want to thank all of my guests and the -- our CNN live coverage of the breaking news continues now with Natalie Allen in Atlanta.