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The Search for Flight 370; British Ship Arriving In The Area Where Chinese Ship Detected Two Pulse Signals; Better Black Boxes; U.S. Military Rescues Sick Little Girl

Aired April 06, 2014 - 14:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Welcome to the CNN NEWSROOM.

The search for that missing flight 370 is focused right now in an area off -- in the area, rather, in the Indian Ocean where Chinese ships detected two pulse signals. The HMS Echo, a British ship with advanced detection equipment is expected to arrive at any moment now. The signals heard by the Chinese ship on Friday and Saturday were a little more than a mile apart. And officials say it's the best lead they have right now.

An Australian ship also picked up what officials are calling an acoustic noise today but in a different area to the north. Search teams are trying to figure out what it is, but authorities say they can't verify any of these sounds are connected to the missing plane. We're also learning brand-new details about the potential path after it dropped off Malaysian military radar.

A senior Malaysian government source tells CNN it appears the plane went north and then around Indonesian airspace. And the source says that move may have been intentional to avoid radar detection.

We're going to examine every angle of this investigation. But first let's take a closer look at those new details we're getting about the possible flight path.

Senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is in Kuala Lumpur for us.

So Nic, what more can you tell us about the plane allegedly skirting Indonesia radar?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Fredricka, this is significant, Malaysian officials tell us. Because it shows to them or appears to show to them whoever was flying the plane, when we know that they have said that this is someone who had good control, good flying knowledge of the aircraft, that this person was intentionally trying to avoid radar detection by Indonesian radar. They say that it could have been to put this picture together with the help of radar information from neighboring countries.

And really, this is going to give investigators here an additional sort of insight into the psychology of the person who was piloting the aircraft at that moment. We know investigators are looking at the crew. They have been trying to determine whether it was the captain or first officer who made the last radio communication before they went to radio silence, before they turned off transponders on the transponders n the aircraft giving its location.

So it appears essentially, they are saying, that whoever was flying the plane was trying to essentially disappear of the radar map, fly into a very remote part of the ocean, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: What kind of reaction is coming from perhaps crew, passengers or family members.

ROBERTSON: Yes. The passenger family members here have been telling us more about their thoughts about the pings detected in the south China seas by recovery services right now. They say without confirmation they are trying to sort of wait patiently. However, that said many of the Chinese families, all but around about three of those families, we're told, have gone back to Beijing today. They have left a letter with the Malaysian authorities saying that they want essentially a fund to be set up that can be a reward for whoever gets their first and best information about finding the aircraft. And they want investigators who are familiar with the French airlines investigation that plane went down in 2009 on a flight from Brazil back to Paris. So they are calling for sort, if you will, the best world experts to be brought to them in on this.

As far as the change or the more details about the flight route we're getting, the Chinese, Malaysian families of passengers on board haven't yet digested that and commented on it, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Nic Robertson, thanks from Kuala Lumpur.

So as we just told you British ship, the HMS Echo, is expected to arrive at the site where Chinese ship detected an underwater pulse its British Royale navy survey designed to support submarines and amphibious operations. The ship charge on the sea floor and provides realtime environmental information.

Take a look at the image of the sea floor. It was generated from one of Echo's past survey missions. The detail in it gives you an idea of the capabilities of the high-tech ship. But most important in the search for flight 370, the echo also has sophisticated sound locating equipment. It can play a pivotal role in determining whether the pulse signal is coming from flight 370 black boxes.

All right. Let's check in now with Will Ripley. He is in Perth, Australia, the hub of the search operation.

So Will, what can you tell us about how soon that ship might get to that certainly location?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, the last update that we have from Angus Houston puts the Echo in the newly refined search zone now. We don't have official word that it has arrived. That will likely come later on this morning. But according to the timeframe we were given, it should be arriving right now and should immediately get to work using that high-tech equipment to scan the ocean and listen for any sounds and also be able to take a picture of what may lie below.

The arrival of the Echo in this area is critical because there's a lot of question right now here in Australia about this Chinese ship, (INAUDIBLE) and the pings that it supposed to be detected on Friday and Saturday. We don't really know yet how reliable this technology is, the margin for error.

And so, to get the Echo in there to be another set of ears, essentially under the water, to be able to listen and to see what is there will certainly be crucial as this investigation moves forward, as we need to proceed with caution because there have been a lot of false leads in the case. We don't want to encourage any false hope. But certainly, a significant development and worthy of the Echo to be there and investigate.

WHITFIELD: And so Will, what more do we know about the technology on that Chinese vessel?

RIPLEY: Well, you know, all we know really is what you know from seeing those pictures from CCTV. It looked to be some sort of hydrophone that was hand-held, stuck in the water from a dinghy. Now, whether the video shows it all that was used, we just don't know. You know, as you know, sometimes the video won't show the entire story on the ground. But that's really all that we have to go on and that's what Australian officials have to go on as well.

We know they have been up communicating with the Chinese. They are working to kind of communicate even more. They brought in a translator to help assist in that process. But that's why they really wanted to get the Echo in place so that we can start using additional technology to scan this area and see what may be there.

WHITFIELD: And then Australia has its own ship, the Ocean Shield, that it has a high-tech locater which was borrowed from the U.S. Navy. How might it be used in this ongoing search?

RIPLEY: Yes. You know, and we don't want -- we need to point out the Ocean Shield is 350 miles away. And as far as we know it is still investigating another lead, another acoustic event as Angus Houston who coordinates the efforts here worded it, an acoustic event 350 miles away. Very limited details about that. When we asked our source at the Australian defense force, we were told, they just can't talk about that. They are probably trying to avoid any premature speculation. But you know, we need to know that there's another lead being looked into at a totally separate location.

Now again, we need to be careful because as was pointed out during this investigation, just like we saw a lot of objects that turned out to be not connected to flight 370, the same could be true with these underwater sound as well.

WHITFIELD: OK. And Australians not using the word pulse but instead an acoustic noise that ship may have picked up.

All right, thanks so much, Will. Appreciate that.

I want to bring in sonar expert Arnold Carr right now. He is president at American underwater search and survey.

So Mr. Carr, you know, he also helped find SS Portland in 1989 and was involved in the TWA flight 800 recovery.

So Mr. Carr, you know, that British ship due to arrive at any moment as you heard Will say, at an area where the pulses were detected according to the Chinese vessel. And we understand their technology may be a bit rudimentary, but it had some sort of hydrophones that it just simply dropped into the water.

In your view, is that high-tech enough to pick up pings this could be flight data boxes?

ARNOLD CARR, SONAR EXPERT; I think Chinese vessel using a hand-held, it is good equipment and it is fairly sensitive but really deployed for shallow areas, not the depth you're talking about now. I think finding pulses and verifying pulses are critical. The new ship coming in, the British ship with more sophisticated gear would really help out. Because what you need to do is get those pulses in a great consistent manner. It will tell you if you are seeing pulses from something like aircraft pingers and the recorders but it won't verify. You can't really verify it totally until you really hone in on those beacons and the pingers and get to the bottom to see what it really is.

WHITFIELD: So if the Chinese say that they were able to detect the sound twice, but one time for about a minute and a half. You're saying with this kind of equipment that perhaps the British ship has on board, it would be in a position to get a more consistent sound for a lengthier amount of time even if, say, they were some sort of obstructions and that would explain why there was only a minute and a half detected by the Chinese ship?

CARR: You can get some masking of the pings, of the pulses by either geology or sometimes the wreckage in the tail where the locaters are located. Yes, you need more sophistication there.

What you have to do with those hand-held devices, they are really meant for a mile or less as far as detection. And when you're getting down to the bottom, that is a mile or more in-depth, you really have to be right over it, just about, to see it.

The British ship will be able to be a lot more efficient because of its resolution in picking up sound. And the Australian ship with a pro device would be best because that gives you more of a horizontal mode when you're bringing hydrophones down near the bottom.

WHITFIELD: All right. Arnold Carr, thank you so much. We'll talk with you again. You're going to join our panel in a moment. We're going to talk more about the search for these pulses and what others Australians have described as acoustic noises. And we are also going to talk more about this latest report. Was this plane trying to avoid Indonesian radar? (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back. A couple of major developments today in the search for missing flight 370. The HMS Echo, a British ship with advanced detection equipment expected to arrive any minute now at a site where a Chinese ship detected two signals.

An Australian ship also picked up what officials are calling an acoustic noise today but in a different area to the north. But authorities say they can't verify any of these sounds are connected to the missing plane.

There are also new details about the potential path of the plane. A senior Malaysian government source tells CNN it appears it went north and then around Indonesian airspace and the source says that move may have been intentional to avoid radar detection.

I want to bring in our panel for this hour, Arnold Carr is a sonar expert and the president of American underwater search and survey. And with me here is Captain Kit Darby. He is a retired United airlines pilot and the president of Kit Darby aviation consulting. And CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo, former inspector general for U.S. department of transportation. She is now an aviation attorney who represents families suing airlines in crashes and disasters. And CNN law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes.

Lets jumped right into this report that the plane intentionally skirted Indonesian radar. When put with other information we've seen about the flight's path, are we getting any closer to the conclusion this was a deliberate act by someone in the cockpit of the plane, Mary?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, this is another theory. Again, I'd like to know if they have additional information because in the beginning four weeks ago, of course, we were wondering about intention way points, did they intentionally travel to these different wave points which put it on a path that was not a straight line.

Now, the theory that they have apparently tries to explain different flight paths where it went around Indonesia. And of course, the way it points would have helped direct it around. So it's a theory that helps fill in the evidence. We don't have additional hard evidence that shows this is what happened, but it is certainly is a theory that places the plane at way points for a reason, to skirt radar. And then it explains why we had no information on radar from Indonesia.

WHITFIELD: Captain Darby, what does this theory tell you about the direction of the investigation? Still says and still have justify what Malaysian authorities said at the very beginning that they thought that either someone had control in the cockpit, if not the pilots and someone else. And this seemed to be an intentional move.

KIT DARBY, PILOT AND UNITED AIRLINES CAPTAIN: Well, clearly when the airplane -- you could have a scenario where nobody was flying the planes, but it doesn't make turns, it doesn't climb and descend. So clearly, somebody is flying the plane. Now, whether it is the pilot or someone with a gun to the head of the pilot, I can't tell you. But clearly, they would have enough knowledge to avoid the radar. I mean, their path, they would have experience flying in this area, they would know how the radar would go. They seem to have chosen a path that would avoid the radar. It seems like clearly someone is flying the plane with an intention of going south.

WHITFIELD: And is that something that becomes common knowledge for a pilot where radar begins and ends, particularly military radar for any country.

DARBY: Well, I mentioned military radar. The contact would lose contact with the radio and would lose radar contact. If you would have some experienced with that boundary area, I believe the Thai radar, which I've always had a lot of faith in, and they say now at other countries, they don't know which ones are providing some of their still information. So I think we are going to have a good radar track and altitude on this airplane when the information that's available becomes pubic knowledge.

WHITFIELD: And Tom, how does this advance the criminal end of the investigation to be able to determine there was a direct void answer of a radar detection or if other nearby radar able to pick up or verify the plane's presence?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: It doesn't alter any aspect of the investigation, Fredricka. They were already looking at all those possibilities from the very first week. Another thing, airports or airlines operating in that part of the world in the middle of the night are very busy. I've just recently flown in and out of sync Singapore and Jakarta and Bangkok. And the flights were in the middle of the night because that's when you land and you are off for takeoff for European land there. So they could also been avoiding busy airspace to go around Indonesia. And they could have assumed that they might have come up on Indonesian defense radar and not wanting to be shot down. And that would be another reason for going around the actual island of Sumatra, which is the one it was heading towards.

So, I think, you know, there's multiple explanations of why they were turning that plane in different directions, you know, avoiding radar is one theory.

WHITFIELD: And what might be some of the other reasons why this plane would make a such zigzag kind of track if, indeed, this were the path it would take, Tom?

FUENTES: It wasn't a zigzag. They were flying straight across the Malaysian peninsula, heading for the main part of the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. They made a right turn in the Malacca straits, went up and around Indonesia. But again, that's very busy airspace. And they may not have wanted to appear as an intruder, which would trigger defense reaction from Indonesia and possibly shoot them down.

So, if they were flying it, it's not just to avoid defense radar. They may have assumed they came up on it. If they made that right turn, then they would present a less hostile intruder into the airspace since it's not heading directly into Indonesia. WHITFIELD: And Arnold, how would you see this information of being helpful in the ongoing search now for any potential debris or black boxes, at least in the right now targeted zones. How would that new path in any way kind of change by a degree or two where the central focus should be.

CARR: Certainly verifies or attempts at this point to verify the most probable area. The thing my fellow panelist said that I think is most encouraging is I really hope that radar data, first analysis will give us much more information because there's three things you hone in on if you have an aircraft go down. You use radar very high on the list. Of course communications, GPS signals, position, and then, of course, debris in the water or other critical areas. You really need that to find the debris field.

WHITFIELD: And then captain, I wonder if this information now, will it redirect any focus on certain potential tools, satellite imagery. Will investigators now want to relook at material, relook at satellite images now with this other possible turn or adjustment in the track? Might it make a difference?

DARBY: I believe so. Like I said, since it descended and went back up, in addition to these turns, it would shorten the range. So I like these new search areas a lot, come back towards Malaysia. And I believe the airplane with these maneuvers and the climbing and descending, would shorten is range significantly. So it should change the all the -- many of the assumptions we made earlier would have to be reanalyzed on the basis of this new data. So I believe it will change where we're looking.

WHITFIELD: OK. When we come back, we are going to talk more about the search area now and the concentrated effort to reinvestigate those pulse sounds heard on Friday and Saturday by the Chinese vessel and now the acoustic noises detected by Australian vessel. All that with our panel when we come right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANGUS HOUSTON, CHIEF COORDINATOR, JOINTS AGENCY COORDINATION CENTER: The water in which the highest (ph) wind 01 is working is very, very deep. I think it is in the order found and a half thousand meters and that is incredibly bog. 4 1/2 kilometers straight down. So you know, any recovery operation is going to be incredibly challenging and very demanding and will take a long period of time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: That was Angus Houston, the head of the Australian agency coordinating flight 370 search operations explaining how there's 4500 meters or nearly three miles of search area underneath where the Chinese patrol ship picked up those underwater sounds.

In other words, even if that's exactly where the missing plane went down, any underwater search and recovery efforts would be daunting to say the least.

Jennifer Gray with us now to tell us what kind of (INAUDIBLE) pave the picture of just how challenging a task we are talking.

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And even that is something that is really hard to do because we just don't know a whole lot about the surface. We so know that these new search area is about 83,000 square miles. That's roughly the size of Utah. So we've had ships, we've had planes that have just combing this area.

This is nothing compared to what lies beneath the ocean. We know there's a broken ridge, there is a plateau in the vicinity. But it is rain on the ocean floor can be very, very daunting as we were saying.

I want to take you underneath and sort of paint a picture if I can. The ping detection depth expected to be about 15,000 feet below. Of course, it could be deeper, could be not quite as deep. We just really don't know because we don't know exactly where it is. Where that broken ridge is could be up to 20,000 feet deep and then where the plateau is could be anywhere from, say, five to 10,000 feet.

Let me try to put this in perspective for you, if I can. We have some of the world's tallest or most known buildings sitting right on the ocean floor. You can see this one right here. This little speck right here, it's the Eiffel tower. This is about a thousand. And when you put that on the bottom of the Indian Ocean, look at that, you would have to stack 20 of these on top of each other to get to the top of the Indian Ocean.

We also have the empire state building right here about the same height, of course, it would take 17 or 19 of these, stack them on top of each other to equal the depth. So this is going to be very, very daunting. You have the ridges, you have plateaus, and then the depth alone is just extremely intimidating.

The average depth that we're talking about is about 12,700 feet. Of course, the current search area could be as deep, Fred, as 20,000 feet. So this is mind boggling. You see these little buildings sitting on the bottom, it's hard to wrap your mind around what we're dealing with.

WHITFIELD: No. But that helps us understand the scale. And when we saw daunting that's what we mean. But we are going to actually talk a little bit later on this afternoon about the kind of equipment that will be used if indeed that were those location of any wreckage.

What kind of equipment would it take to try to retrieve anything that would fit at the bottom of the ocean that far deep.

Jennifer Gray, thank you so much.

Also, when we come back, we'll be rejoined with our panel. We'll talk about new information that is now increasing confidence in that location of the search area.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DOCTOR SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Schuyler Ebersol, high school started normally. But his luck quickly took a turn for the worse.

SCHUYLER EBERSOL, AUTHOR: I would have sometimes difficulty breathing. I would have severe dizziness so I couldn't really walk or see straight for days at a time. I would faint randomly and go to school some nights not sure I would wake up in the morning.

GUPTA: At first he just chalked it up to stress. But Ebersol quickly realized something was really wrong.

EBERSOL: No one knew what was wrong with me. And they also have hypothesis.

GUPTA: Home from school for months at the time, away from his friends and his world, very sick. Ebersol desperately needed and escape and he found it in writing.

EBERSOL: I just started writing and I would get lost in this world and identify with this character. It was just the way that heel me going, while everything else in my life wasn't so great.

GUPTA: And then after several months doctors finally discovered the cause of his symptoms, a rare form of Lyme's disease. At the same time his scattered pages started to gel into a book.

EBERSOL: The book is called, "The Hidden World." It's about a main character who has a heart attack and slips into a coma. He wakes up and he turns into a wolf in the hospital room.

GUPTA: Sound familiar?

EBERSOL: I didn't really intend for there to be a lot of me in the main character of Nate Williams, but it sort of happened that way.

GUPTA: "The Hidden World" was published last December with more in the works. Ebersol says through it all, writing saved his life.

EBERSOL: You really just have to find something that can sustain you and keep you mentally strong. For me it was writing and the quest to get published.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: New details from a source in the Malaysian government is raising suspicion that missing Flight 370 may have tried to avert radar detection. The source says the plane flew around Indonesia in what may have been an attempt to avoid detection. Why the plane would do that is still a mystery.

Search crews in the Southern Indian Ocean are rushing to figure out if three underwater sounds are related to the missing plane. Authorities say two pulse signals were detected by a Chinese ship, one on Friday and one on Saturday and an Australian ship also detected a noise, but about 350 miles to the north.

A British ship with some very specific and high-tech ability is now within miles of the Chinese ship that had detected that underwater pulse. The "HMS Echo" is equipped with sophisticated sound locating equipment. It could be the key to determining whether this signal is coming from Flight 370's black boxes.

Let's check in now with Will Ripley in Perth. So Will, what is the first thing that echo, I guess, will be assigned to do once it gets to that area?

RIPLEY: In that area as we speak, just within miles of each other as you mentioned. So the Echo's job once it gets to this newly refined search zone, which by the way, the satellite data, the latest numbers, the latest information indicates that officials believe the Malaysian airliner may have gone down in this specific area, which is why what the Chinese ship supposedly detected, which is what's so interesting to authorities.

The Echo being here with the sophisticated technology will allow them to start scanning, take a map of the area, take a map of the ocean, to see exactly what's maybe down there. That is key because we can either verify, OK, we are on to something or we can, you know, clear the area and say this is not the right spot and we need to move on from here. That effort is going to begin literally within the next hour or so presumably since the ship is so close.

WHITFIELD: The "Ocean Shield" vessel, you mentioned, 350 miles away from where "Echo" and the Chinese ship are, it claims to have detected some acoustic noise. Will they be any more specific than that?

RIPLEY: Well, we hope to get more specific information today when we check in with authorities. They are being pretty tight lipped right about what exactly the "Ocean Shield" is investigating in that other area. The reason why they are doing that, I think they want to be very cautious. They don't want to put out information that maybe premature.

There is some discussion around here that the publication of the Chinese ship detecting a possible ping on Friday and again on Saturday, they are putting that out there to the world may not have been the right thing because what if it turns out not to have any connection at all to the disappearance of this missing plane.

We've raised people's hopes. We've dropped their hopes again if it turns out to be not connected. Three reported acoustic events, two with Chinese ship, one with the Australian ship, and all are being investigated as we speak. This is a 24/7 operation when you're talking about listening under water and scanning. That's something you don't need daylight to do. They can do it all hours of the day and night.

WHITFIELD: All right, Will Ripley, thanks so much. I want to bring in the panel now, Captain Kit Darby, Mary Schiavo and Tom Fuentes, to talk about today's search. Let's talk about this hope with these acoustic events taking place some 300 miles apart. Given the way sound travels under water, Captain Darby, in your view, is it still hopeful that it could perhaps be the same thing emitting this pulse sound even though it's 300 miles between them?

DARBY: There's no chance of that the airline would fly 30 minutes tocover that kind of distance. No chance the parts would be separated and attached to the airplane. They can't both be right. Although the Chinese, if their description is correct, it sounds like the best possible lead. If it's a real ping, I'm very excited.

WHITFIELD: And there is the distance between the two different pulses that the Chinese heard, might be a mile apart, might the source be the same?

DARBY: That's more like it. That's about the range of a pinger in the deep water, the depth of the water and any distance you are from being right over the top of it. We're right on the edge of detecting it at all.

WHITFIELD: OK, and then Mary, I wonder, you know, if we're talking about this new track involving the plane might have tried to avoid indonesian airspace. In the last conversation, this would better verify or seem to provide more credence to this particular search area, why do you think the two are connected?

SCHIAVO: Well, because for some reason, we don't know exactly why, the Chinese selected this area, which was slightly off the path, off the search area before. This is also where Chinese aircraft said they saw some objects. There was a reason they selected this area with the new information or at least newly released, who knows when they heard about it. Network believes planes skirted Indonesian airspace, that would give searchers a better indication of the track. It would add to and not detract from the track from Inmarsat.

They would have the Inmarsat data and they could overlay this track where they went around Indonesia as opposed to perhaps across it would give them a better place to zero in. That being the case, perhaps that's what the Chinese thought or figured out or came up with on their own or communicated with the Indonesians. If that's the case, well, then, they are on a better location to search.

WHITFIELD: Tom, you know, does this better underscore the Chinese have technology or abilities that they are keeping secret. I mean, no one knew this Chinese ship, the Haixun actually had this kind of noise detecting equipment on board. And then lo and behold it was able to pick up what it says is two pulses. Do we believe that they had other technology that helped them pinpoint this location?

FUENTES: We don't know. We're guessing what they actually do have. I've been scanning English speaking Chinese newspapers all day. This is front page news throughout the country. And the way they are reporting this there, they are quoting Chinese scientists and college professors as this is it. We found the airplane. So they are not even speculating with caution in China. What that does in my mind is create an enormous political problem for Australia and Malaysians if they send that Echo over that site and find nothing, do they just say there was nothing there in the first place and leave? Do they say maybe the battery ran out by the time they got there? They are going to have a hard time ignoring this Chinese information because of the pressure that's going to be put on them by China itself.

WHITFIELD: Mary, Australia authorities are saying that this is, quote, "Important and encouraging lead." At the same time does it look as though the Chinese are trying to take the lead in investigation so far the search investigations by Australians?

SCHIAVO: Well, sure, investigators do that. We have the same thing in this country. When TWA 800 went down, the FBI, NTSB were at pretty much at each other's throat. In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, the CIA, the FBI and the FAA, they were all pointing fingers at each other. Investigators do that. They are curious. They want to solve the mystery.

If the Chinese wanted to step out ahead and go out their open and put pieces together, yes, you can ring your hands and say you didn't cooperate, but the fact of the matter is if they found it, they found it. That's what we want. I think it's impossible to ignore.

Even if they don't pick up the pings at this point, the Australian leader, Angus, will have to say we're going to map the ocean floor. You can't ignore it. This is all you've got. You've got a ping here and two pings there. At this point they are going to have to commit.

WHITFIELD: All right, well, again, the British ship now in that area. We understand just miles away from the exact location the Chinese believed they picked up pulses. We'll see if the sonar equipment being used on the British ship will help duplicate that kind of sound. Kit Darby, Mary Schiavo, and Tom Fuentes, thanks to all of you. Appreciate it. Stay with us. We'll check bases with you later on as this story continues to develop.

Also, we're going to talk about what one congressman is proposing. He says it's time to add a more advanced type of black box to commercial planes, but what's the cost, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A month into the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and crews are still desperately trying to find plane's black boxes. What if airplanes were equipped with back-up black boxes that automatically ejected in an emergency situation that would be easier to find. One lawmaker is trying to make that a reality. I asked Congressman David Price whether he thinks they should be on all commercial planes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. DAVID PRICE (D), NORTH CAROLINA: I believe there should be. There's been a good deal of study, a good deal of discussion how this might be done. The 9/11 commission recommended this. Recently I've directed through Homeland Security Subcommittee, which at that point I was chairing, I directed Transportation Security Administration to study the feasibility of putting these ejectable, floatable black boxes on all commercial aircraft.

They came back with a very positive report about the potential of such technology. Now the Federal Aviation Administration, which is the agency that mainly has jurisdiction here has this under consideration.

WHITFIELD: If the 911 commission recommended it as well and it is available, what's the problem?

PRICE: Well, that's a good question. There's plenty of compelling reasons to do this. Some might say cost is the problem, but one of the searches like the search under way now for this Malaysia Airliner, the cost of that sort of search would pay for these things indefinitely. So there's no comparison. There's also the security argument where we need to know as soon as we can whether there was a terrorist attack or some other eventuality and closure for these families who have the agony of a long wait. (END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much to Representative David Price. So as ships search for underwater sounds from those black boxes, Malaysia government source tells CNN, the plane may have intentionally avoided Indonesian airspace. Back in China, families of the passengers are hesitant about any new leads. Here is CNN's Pauline Chiu.

PAULINE CHIU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Chinese families here in Beijing are aware of the latest developments in this possible ping and many of them have watched the Australian news conference. In general, they are taking a very cautious approach because there has been so many false leads in the past. One Chinese relative saying this is a new clue, but there seems to be many new clues every day. Let's wait until it's confirmed.

There have been a lot of questions about why this news broke by Chinese media rather than coming from the Australians who are leading the search effort in the southern corridor. Well, from a domestic political point of view, China needs to appear strong for its citizens in terms of finding answers, especially since 154 people on the plane are Chinese citizens.

Now the Australian head of the search agency, Angus Houston had said in the news conference that he understands the reality of news getting ahead of him, especially when you have reporters on the planes and on the ships. He said he's prepared to accept though reality. He's done playing any tension between China and Australia.

He wanted to stress this is a complicated international effort and he wanted to focus on the positive. In this case the positive of chasing down this latest lead. Pauline Chui, CNN, Beijing.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much, Pauline. We'll have much more on the ongoing search of Flight 370 with one of the British ship arriving to an area where the Chinese vessel said it heard pulses. Next the daring rescue of a sick little girl 900 miles off the coast of Mexico.

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UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Richard Williams taught Venus and Serena how to play tennis on the hard courts of Compton, California. Combined the sisters have won 24 grand slam singles titles. One of their most treasured was winning Olympic gold together in London.

VENUS WILLIAMS, TENNIS PLAYER: The Olympics have been the most special moment for Serena and I in our life. Playing doubles as well has been amazing. To play with your sister and get alone and support each other.

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: During my visit to Palm Beach Gardens, I watched as Venus and Serena trained side by side.

WILLIAMS: We come out and hit hard. My dad comes out and coaches and picks up balls faster than anyone out there I met. Serena and I usually hit next to each other because we want to practice separate things.

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Pretty good practice partner.

WILLIAMS: Whenever we hit together, we're like, we have to do it every day. Like before, I don't want to mess up and ruin her practice. It's not like I want to make sure and show how good I am, it's like I want to make sure she gets a good practice and she feels the same way about me.

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WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. The "HMS Echo" British ship with advanced detection equipment has arrived at the site where that Chinese ship said it picked up pulses. The Chinese ship is the one that detected those pulses on Friday and Saturday saying it picked up two pulse signals. Crews will try to figure out what those sounds are and if they are, indeed, linked to the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. More on this at the top of the hour. Again, that British ship arriving with its special high-tech equipment to try to detect any underwater pulses.

All right, and this, dramatic rescue overnight after a little girl got sick on a not so typical family vacation. The family of four headed out on an around the world trip a few days ago. Few days ago their 1- year-old, 1-year-old child came down with a fever and rash and wasn't responding to antibiotics. Their boat was too damaged to get them home safely.

That's when the Navy, U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard and National Guard, all had to get involved. A Navy ship arrived at the family's boat last night 900 miles south west of Cabo San Lucas, but it waited until daylight this morning to bring the family of four on board. A medical team parachuted in on Thursday to start treating the little girl and they are staying by her side until she's in the care of a doctor. The Coast Guard said the girl and her family are in stable condition. All right, a little March Madness talk. Kentucky Wildcats fans have a reason to celebrate today. With just seconds left on the clock, freshman Aaron Harrison sank a ridiculous three-pointer to give his team a win over the Wisconsin Badgers last night. They will face Uconn for NCAA championship title Monday night in Arlington, Texas.

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