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British Ship HMS Echo Arrives at Search Area

Aired April 06, 2014 - 16:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello again, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

The search for missing flight 370 is focus right now in a part of the Indian Ocean where Chinese ship detected two pulse signals. A British ship with advanced detection equipment just arrived to that area to investigate. It will try to figure out if what the Chinese ship heard on Friday and Saturday is linked in anyway to the missing plane.

Officials say right now it is the best lead they have. But they caution it may not be the answer. An Australian ship picked up what officials are calling an acoustic noise today further north. Search teams are also trying to figure out what that is. We are also learning brand new details about the potential path of the plane after it dropped off Malaysian military radar.

A senior Malaysian government source tells CNN it appears the plane went north and then around Indonesian air space. The source says that move may have been intentional to avoid radar detection. We're going to examine ever angle of this investigation.

But first, let's take a closer look at the details about the possible flight path. Senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is live for us in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. So Nic, what more can you tell us about the plane skirting Indonesian air space?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what officials here are telling us, Fredricka, is that because they now received radar data from neighboring countries, they can put together a much better map of what the aircraft did. Now, the NMAR SAT data that led the search mission to the south Indian Ocean picked up the flight as sort of was on the western side of Indonesia.

What we now know is after this flight deviated from it's direct flight to Beijing, turned around, flew back across the Malaysian Peninsula, then it turns, goes north around the north of Indonesia. Then flies down the far western side of Indonesia. But what's key here the information that is key is that the officials here say that they believe whoever was at the controls of the aircraft was trying to avoid radar detection.

That really gives investigators an insight into the psychology of who ever was flying. Now, we know that the investigation was focusing on the crew members, the most skilled pilot onboard would of course be the captain, after that the first officer. And certainly that appears where the focus of the investigation is going. Why would it be time to avoid radar detection and then fly to a very remote part of the ocean. So a lot of attention now focusing on the first officer and the captain, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And again, because Nic, it had already been reported that authorities had cleared - Interpol, in particular, had cleared all of the passengers and other crew members onboard for any kind of potential criminal activity. So these officials still believe that it was the pilot and the first pilot, the co-pilot who were definitely in control of the cockpit?

ROBERTSON: They can't say that with 100 percent certainty, what they have said is OK we clear all the passengers that leaves if you will a sort of triangle of suspicion of who else was onboard the aircraft. That is the 12-member crew, the peak of that triangle you could say is the captain. The one with so many thousands of hours flying experience. The first officer with him in the cockpit doesn't have so much experience and this comes down to that key question. Who was in control at the last minute. Who made the last radio transmission to air traffic control that said thank you, good night Malaysian 370.

That recording have been played to friends and colleagues, but the first officer and captain, so far, investigators say they can't determine which one of the two it was. But what we are beginning to get is a picture from investigators of what they believe was in the mind of the person that was controlling it and we do have to say here the top of the triangle, the most suspicion at this time, appears to be falling on the captain. What would have been on his mind, trying to evade radar detection, trying to take the plane somewhere when no one knew about it. And that really leaves investigators with one very, very tough conclusion that seemed to be beginning to here, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Yes, but still strange too that they couldn't determine whose voices they were hearing on the voice recorder especially since you are talking about such a disparity, a difference in ages between the pilot and the co-pilot.

ROBERTSON: Absolutely. And also we know that on the ground when the aircraft pushes back and on the taxi way, it is the co-pilot, the first officer who is doing all the radio transmission. So you have a clear definitive time period where you know who is speaking. OK. Compare that voice to that last voice. Is it the same one, yes or no.

It should seem relatively (INAUDIBLE) but, again, let's remember here, Malaysian authorities investigators playing their cards close to their chest. This information, if it leaked out could be very painful to whichever family is involved here, a huge responsibility they would be feeling as well as the loss, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Yes, strange investigation becomes even more strange. All right. Nic Robertson, thanks so much.

Let's talk more now about the British ship that arrived several hours ago, the HMS Echo is a Royal Navy survey ship that supports marines and amphibious operations. It is designed to chart the sea floor and provide real-time environmental information. More importantly, for this search, the echo is equipped with highly sophisticated sound locating equipment. It could be the key to determining whether or not the signal is coming from the flight 370 black boxes, the signal and the pulses that the Chinese vessel earlier said it detected on Friday and Saturday.

Now, on the phone with me now is CNN analyst, David Gallo. He is the director of special projects at (INAUDIBLE) Oceanographic Institution. So David, that the British ship is now in the same area where the Chinese vessel said it detected the pulses. Compare for us the technology because we have seen the video of the Chinese vessel using a hydrophone, just kind of at the surface of the water, but how does that compare to the technology that would be on this British ship?

DAVID GALLO, CNN ANALYST: Right, Fredricka. My understanding is that the British ship is going to be more sophisticated in technology than what's on the Chinese inflatable boat. And it should be able to be more sensitive to picking up that ping and analyzing whether it is from the black box or not.

WHITFIELD: And what would be, I guess, the lapse of time, how long will it take before the British ship were to actually get its equipment in order, put things in the water and start it's listening devices.

GALLO: Yes, Fredricka, I'm sure on the way, on route there, in transit, they are probably ready to go. They wanted to be ready to go as soon as they got on scene. So I'm sure they have stuff going over the side right now. My guess is that it is some sort of tow system, similar to the TPL25, that's the ocean shield (ph). And then they probably have some other things too that we are not aware of yet.

WHITFIELD: And is there anything else to your best guess that would replicate the kind of frequency that these Chinese officials believe is characteristic of a pulse?

GALLO: Not off the top of my head but, you know, in Air France, we had a false alarm or two on that survey. Other groups have told me they have had false alarms (INAUDIBLE) frequency of 37.5. So it is not unheard of. It may be well be biologic, a whale or that kind of thing or even a ship making that kind of noise.

WHITFIELD: David Gallo, thank you so much.

All right. So for the latest on what that ship is doing right now let's check in with Matthew Chance. He is in Perth, Australia, the hub of the search operation. Matthew, what do we know about the sequence of events taking place on the Echo right now?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We don't know a great deal, to be honest in terms of what they are actually doing on an hour by hour basis. We know that within the last hour they arrived in the area where the Chinese vessel detected those two separate acoustic events as they called 12 hours apart. In which one of them was for 90 seconds. Every second a pulse on the frequency, 37.5 kH and so that was something which the Australian search teams, which the Chinese said is consistent with a black box. But no one has verified that it is the black box of this Malaysian airlines. As yet, of course, that's why the HMS Echo, the sophisticated British ship which is designed to map the ocean floor has been deployed for. I think it's interesting there has been a major redeployment of assets as a result of these Chinese findings. Previously, these Chinese ships were operating essentially outside of the main search zone.

But now it seems that because of what they found and because of other data as well, they mentioned satellite data that's been adjusted and changed and refined. The whole search (INAUDIBLE) has moved essentially to that area around where the Chinese detected these two acoustic (INAUDIBLE).

There's another area as well of interest, we shouldn't forget about that. The Australian vessel, the Ocean Shield, which is described as the most sophisticated of all the ships scouring the ocean floor at the moment, in search for this missing Malaysian airliner is in a separate location about 300 nautical miles away from where the Chinese are, and where the British ship has jus arrived, investigating what they describe as a third acoustic event. And so we shouldn't lose focus on that. That could also be productive. But at the moment, none of these events have been verified as being linked in any way, at this stage, to that missing plane. Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Matthew Chance in Perth, thanks so much.

All right. We'll have more on the on-going mystery surrounding flight 370 and we'll also look further into why that plane may have been trying to avoid Indonesian radar. All that straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back to developments we want to zero in on as it pertains to the mystery surrounding flight 370. Number one a British ship is now in the same vicinity where that Chinese vessel picked up two pulses in the Indian Ocean. Now with better technology, the British ship is hoping to detect the same thing. And also Malaysian officials are telling CNN that flight 370 intentionally tried to avoid Indonesian radar. Why? Let's zero in on that right now with our panel back with us this hour.

With me here is Capt. Keith Darby, he is a retired United Airlines captain and president of Kit Darby Aviation Consulting. Tom Fuentes is a CNN law enforcement analyst. And Rob McCallum is a CNN analyst and a vice president at Williamson and Associations.

Kit, to you first. With this latest piece of information that he plane may have been trying to avoid Indonesian radar. In your view while the criminal investigation started with that initial left turn, you say Malaysian authorities might may want to look at this latest act as a first criminal, I guess, something that best indicates criminal activity, not necessarily that initial left turn, what do you mean?

CAPT. KIT DARBY, RETIRED UNITED AIRLINES CAPTAIN: Well, to me I mean, I still see the plane returning towards its homeland, going back towards Malaysia, descending. WHITFIELD: That potentially there could have been a mechanical problem, nothing necessarily intentional.

DARBY: Or even a threat to the cockpit that hadn't breached the cockpit yet. So they are returning to me, what a pilot would do. He'd turn around. He'd start down, no reason to descent if he just want to go to the deep Indian Ocean. There's no need to descend at all. So that descent to me says a problem with the plane. A problem somebody coming after the cockpit. At least initially, it looks like they went back to Malaysia.

Now later on they turned though around Indonesia and head south, that's clearly a criminal act. But the initial one, to me, from a pilot's point of view is just a pilot's natural reaction to return home and descend for landing.

WHITFIELD: Tom, what do you read into this latest report that the avoidance of Indonesian air space? At least now being articulated by Malaysian authorities.

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, first of all, Fredricka, you are saying that this is the direction that the plane took but then you are guessing at the motive of whoever was in charge of that plane as to why it took it. Now, obviously there is a lot of air traffic, civilian air traffic overnight. So that would be one reason to avoid going directly over the land of Indonesia, the island of Sumatra in that location. And the second reason is you got the transponder off and you're flying toward that island, you might just get shot down. You're an intruder coming into their air space, the more direct route you're taking into their land, the more dangerous it might appear to the Indonesians.

So by going north, in that water space and then looping around, you may present a less hostile picture. And yes, I think the plane is being intentionally flown there. But I think it is still a mystery as to why and merely avoided radar. I think they're probably, guess they are not avoiding anybody's radar. There's a lot of radar in the area. I think they are avoiding getting shot down or colliding with another airplane.

WHITFIELD: And how would a pilot know where radar begins and ends? Is that common knowledge?

FUENTES: Well, I think that they probably have a pretty fair idea of where the radars are or it is a logical guess that they would know where all the military airports are on the islands in that area. Because, they would also be alternate landing sites, in case they get in trouble. So they could assume that those airports would have a 24- hour radar.

WHITFIELD: And then I wonder, to you, Rob, does this better verify the search area now, this kind of information, given the fuel capacity for this plane and now the search area, the concentrated search area in the Indian Ocean?

ROB MCCALLUM, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, if you understand motive, and understand (INAUDIBLE) then yes, it usually does but in this case we are still operating in the gray. We don't really have any idea. That is why you see the search area being adjusted in relation to recalculations of the aircraft's potential speed or actual speed.

So it is a complete mystery. The most intriguing thing I've ever encountered and that is why we need those black boxes.

WHITFIELD: And then I wonder, you know, Tom, now that it is clear that Chinese officials have either tools at hand, something that would direct and redirect their focus of the search area perhaps they have information that they are not sharing with other countries, I wonder if Malaysian authorities now might be working in concert with working more cooperatively with Chinese authorities to try to further its criminal investigation just as the Chinese have information to I guess further their search investigation.

FUENTES: I'm more knowledgeable about the criminal investigation and I know for a fact that they are working more closely from the first day the plane disappeared, they already had manifest information that the Chinese already had as well. For them to be doing backgrounds on the passengers from China. So that was being actively worked from the very beginning.

My understanding was the cooperation in that area along with all 14 countries that had passengers on that plane was worked very closely and very intensively from day one.

WHITFIELD: And Capt. Darby, where do you see this investigation now? I mean, there were three separate investigations. You know, the criminal investigation, the search investigation, and now it seems as though well the Australians have taken the lead in this search investigation, it is anyone's guess which direction this search will go and who is going to lead now?

DARBY: I think the Australians are in charge of the search for the airplane and probably be in charge of the recovery because of their recovery because of their geographic orientation to the probable accident site. I think Malaysia still has control of the other part of the investigation. We're looking at psychological, physical, political, religious and we focused on the crew. That would clearly be in the venue of Malaysia.

WHITFIELD: And the actual accident investigation as being the third wheel in all of this.

DARBY: That would be theirs. It's their airline, their plane. They're going to get a lot of help from the expertise in the other countries, in particular who has a lot of experience with this. So they're going to draw on that. So they are going to maintain control of it on the top.

WHITFIELD: And Rob, you know, what kind of timeline, should any one be expecting as it pertains to the on-going search there in the Indian Ocean. It's only a matter of, maybe a couple of hours ago when this British ship got there. How long, you know, would this ship, invest in searching? MCCALLUM: Oh, until they have (INAUDIBLE) target to investigate though and investigate this for as long as they can. You know, we could get lucky at any moment or it may take two or three days but I don't the authorities are going to redeploy Echo unless they have something better to go on.

WHITFIELD: All right. Rob McCallum, Kit Darby, Tom Fuentes, thanks so much. Stay with us. We want to talk more about this developing story and all of these new angles to this on-going mystery later on this hour.

And why families of the passengers are hesitant about these new leads.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The head of the Australian agency coordinating the search for flight 370 calls the detection of underwater sound "an important and encouraging lead." But he says more work is needed before they can confirm anything and speculating does more harm than good.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANGUS HOUSTON, CHIEF COORDINATOR, JOINT AGENCY COORDINATION CENTER: We need to keep at the forefront of our minds the families and friends of the 239 passengers who were onboard the flight. Speculation and unconfirmed reports can see the loved ones of the passengers put through terrible press. I don't want to put them through any further emotional stress at this very difficult time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And in fact many families of the passengers are hesitant about any new leads. Here is CNN's Pauline Chiou.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULINE CHIOU, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): 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. But in general, they are taking a very cautious approach because there have been so many false leads in the past. One Chinese relative saying this is a new clue. But there seems to be many clues every day.

So let's just wait until something is confirmed. There have been a lot of questions about why this news broke by Chinese media rather than coming from 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 it's citizens in terms of finding answers especially since 154 people on that plane are Chinese citizens.

Now the Australian head of the search agency, Angus Houston, has said in the new conference that he understands the reality of news getting ahead of him. Especially when you have reporters on the planes and on ships. So he said he is prepared to accept that reality. But he was down playing any sort of tension between China and Australia saying that he has been very happy with the way China had been sharing information and he wanted to stress that this is a complicated international effort and wanted to focus on the positive, in this case, the positive of chasing down this latest lead.

Pauline Chiou, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Pauline, of course, now we are at 31 days into the search for flight 370. What about the black box batteries have they run out or are they close to running out? The new and renewed urgency to find the black boxes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right new details now from a source in the Malaysian government raising suspicions that Flight 370 may have tried to avert radar detection.

The source tells CNN the plane flew all the way around Indonesian airspace and that may have been intentional, but why the plane would do that is still a mystery. And search crews in the Southern Indian Ocean are rushing to figure out if three underwater sounds are related to the missing plane. A British ship with advanced equipment just arrived in the area where a Chinese ship detected two pulse signals.

And an Australian ship is also investigating a noise it detected about 350 miles to the north of that location.

Our panel joining me again now, Kit Darby, Tom Fuentes, and Rob McCallum.

All right, so the batteries on the plane's black boxes, gentlemen, are probably close to running out, if they haven't already. And winter weather is headed to the search area. So, how much urgency is there to find something sooner?

And I wonder, Captain Darby, if, without these pingers, can you ever really locate any plane wreckage underwater?

DARBY: Well, the 777 is a huge airplane. And the new construction technique, this is a composite airplane, so it is very strong.

I would expect there would be large pieces. And the radar mapping of the bottom would produce leads, and especially if we can narrow the area. Actually, it will produce leads any time. But it just takes a long time to search if you can't narrow the area. I think they will find something using those techniques. It regrettably could be years away.

WHITFIELD: And, Rob, without the battery life on these pingers, talk to me about how realistic it is to do a full survey of the ocean bottom.

MCCALLUM: It is absolutely possible. You're not going to survey all of the world's ocean or indeed all of the Indian Ocean, but to search the existing search area would take around nine months.

But not all search areas are created equal. You may not have to search the whole area itself. Re-analysis of the data would enable you to pare that down into areas of probability. So, it's absolutely possible. It's exactly what our equipment is being designed to do.

WHITFIELD: And, then, Rob, help us understand the traveling of sound, because we are talking about sound that may have been detected some 350 miles apart. It would seem as though it could be very misleading, sound underwater, maybe more probable when we are talking about pulses that are just a mile apart, as the Chinese have detected.

But now we're talking about the Australian ship picking up some sort of audible noise some 350 miles away from where the Chinese vessel did.

MCCALLUM: Yes.

And those reports have been very closely guarded. It has been referred to an acoustic event, which essentially means noise. But we don't know what kind of noise that it is that they have heard or how reliable that source is.

You have to remember that when you are towing a TPL through the water, a towed pinger locator through the water, it is on the end of a very long cable, around 6,000 meters or so. So, you have got a lot of cable in the matter. If you hear something and you want to go back and listen, it can take many hours to turn around and go back.

WHITFIELD: And, Tom, is your expectation that with this British naval ship -- British ship, rather, in the area, and the Australian ship using naval equipment, U.S. naval equipment, that it needs to invest at least another 24 hours to try to further investigate these sounds or perhaps even more than that?

FUENTES: As I said, I don't think they can walk away from this no matter what. If the Echo finds nothing, they will just say, well, maybe the pinger battery life ended, and they need to bring in the Ocean Shield and go down with submersibles and map the bottom of the ocean.

I don't know how they avoid being out there for months or at least until winter sets in and come back later if nothing is found. I would like to add one other thing to the avoiding radar theory, if I could real quick.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

FUENTES: Malaysia Airlines flies to Perth, Melbourne, Darwin, Brisbane, and Sydney, Australia.

This captain was a senior captain. He could have bid to fly on one of those routes, headed for Australia. He wouldn't have had to turn off a transponder. He wouldn't have had to avoid anybody's radar or fly circles around Indonesia, on his way down, then shut it off and drift off into the Indian Ocean and found a 20,000-feet-deep area if he was going to do this.

It is just one more thing to think about. That airline goes to Australia already.

WHITFIELD: And so, Captain Darby, this new information doesn't crystallize anything. If anything, it seems to make it even more confusing, does it not?

DARBY: Well, the question would be, if he had a plan, then this theory that was just introduced would make sense. You would bid the trip you would want and then you would simply go away.

But, normally -- first of all, it doesn't happen normally, but if it were to happen, it would be instituted by life events. We would look for divorces. We would look for relationships. We would look for physical problems. We would look for political or religious problems, something that is really significant that could set something off, because even though it might have been planned for a short time, I don't believe it was a long-term plan. It was much easier to do the previous scenario than it would be to go north and come back south.

If we're looking, we may be looking for something that would set it off at this time, rather than a long-term plan.

WHITFIELD: But, clearly, that is the kind of information that Malaysian authorities are already looking into, they may have already discounted, they may have already ruled in, but definitively none of that has been confirmed.

DARBY: And very sensitive to go into those areas, to attack an individual on that basis. It is going to take more than circumstantial information.

WHITFIELD: Tom, is this criminal investigation becoming more crystallized in your view or is it becoming murkier?

FUENTES: It's not murkier. It has been difficult from the beginning because there has been no derogatory information about either pilot developed as of now.

But from the profiling standpoint, many of these events that people do are planned for a long period of time, even though no one else sees it. They may buy a weapon long in advance of actually going and using it and shooting people. Or this could have been planned. I'm not saying it was.

And the Malaysian authorities have found nothing against the captain. I'm just saying that these events are not usually someone that just snapped that day, but are planned and thought out in advance.

WHITFIELD: And, so, Rob, as it pertains to the other investigations, the accident investigation and the search investigation, does it worry you how the criminal investigation would impact the resources devoted to the search and accident investigations? MCCALLUM: No, as a practitioner, our role is really to locate whatever is in the depths. And at the moment, there has been this dry force speed to try and find wreckage on the surface as fast as possible before it drifted away and now to find the pingers before the battery dies.

Our job really now is about being precise and being very thorough about how we approach the next phase of the search, which clearly is going to be underwater in one way or another.

Rob McCallum, Captain Kit Darby, Tom Fuentes, thank you to all of you. Appreciate it.

All right, we will have much more on the ongoing search for Flight 370. And how will the ocean depth -- we are talking about three miles deep in the current search area -- how might that impact the search for the black boxes and the plane?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AIR CHIEF ANGUS HOUSTON, JOINT AGENCY COORDINATION CENTER: The water in which the Haixun 01 is working at the moment, it is very, very deep. I think it is in the order of 4,500 meters. And that's incredibly deep, 4.5 kilometers straight down.

So any recovery operation is going to be incredibly challenging and very demanding and will take a long period of time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, that was Angus Houston, the head of the Australian agency coordinating Flight 370's search operations, explaining how there's nearly three miles of water underneath the search area where that Chinese patrol ship picked up those underwater sounds.

And, in order words, even if that is exactly where the missing plane went down, any underwater search and recovery efforts will be daunting, to say the very least.

Here's Jennifer Gray with more on how difficult this task is.

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Fred the new search area is about 83,000 square miles. That is roughly the size of Utah.

And I want to take you underneath the surface. But you need to be careful with this, because there's so little we know about the Indian Ocean. There are a few things we do know. But all of this is relative, because there's a lot of things we don't know.

We do know that there is a broken ridge and a plateau underneath where they are searching. If it take you into the depths of the ocean, you can see about 10,000 to 16,000 feet is what we are looking at as far as the averages. Where the ping was detected, we are thinking it is almost 15,000 below the ocean's surface, and it could go down to 20,000 feet.

That's at its deepest point on the plateau anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 feet. And let me put this into perspective for you, the Indian Ocean, a very, very deep ocean. Look at this. This is the Eiffel Tower. It stands at about a 1,000 feet, this little bitty speck. This is sitting on the bottom of the ocean.

This puts it into perspective for you, very, very deep. Tokyo Tower, 1,000 feet as well, Empire State Building about 1,200 feet. You would have to stack more than 10 Empire State Buildings on top of each other to get the kind of depth that we are talking about here.

The average depth where that pinger was thought to be heard, almost 13,000 feet. So, it is going to be very, very tough to locate this, especially with the terrain that we are looking at on the bottom of the ocean floor.

So, Fred, it is going to be tough for the next couple of weeks.

WHITFIELD: All right, thank you so much, Jennifer Gray.

Our panel will be back. And we want to ask if this latest search really is the best hope in the ongoing search for Flight 370.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARAH RAMIREZ, CNN HERO: Pixley is a small community located in the central part of California. We are in this agriculturally rich area and yet people who live here and work here are hungry, are impoverished.

Some are working in the fields that feed the entire country and then they don't have resources to put them in their homes. It's heartbreaking.

You can't just watch that and not wonder, is there something more that we can do?

What we do is we glean mostly from backyards. Today, we're looking at a glean of about 6,400 pounds. That's incredible.

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

For those had you that are high school students -

Looking at these issues of poverty and obesity, we were trying to figure out how do we provide our resources for our community and our home?

We also have a component in our garden that's a "you pick" area, if your household needs 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. And I want that for everybody.

Oh, look.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right welcome back.

A British ship with high-tech underwater equipment is now in the same area where that Chinese vessel said it detected two pulses. Might it be pulses coming from black boxes from Flight 370?

Let's ask our panel if indeed this might be the best hope in this search, Kit Darby, Tom Fuentes, and Rob McCallum all back with me now.

All right, so, gentlemen, quickly.

Rob, to you first, is this the best hope, the best lead in this search thus far?

MCCALLUM: Thus far, absolutely.

In fact, not to put too fine a point on it, it is the only lead thus far. You know, we have had reinforcement that this is the right area. And now we are within the sweet spot of the area listening to two potential acoustic events. That is promising.

WHITFIELD: And Tom?

FUENTES: I agree with Rob. It sounds like the only place that we have had that sounds promising.

WHITFIELD: And Captain Darby?

DARBY: I have to agree. I mean, this is the only -- it's like looking for debris and actually finding some. So, this is a very distinct sound. And if it proves to be correct, I believe we have found the plane. If it's not correct, we're right back where we started.

WHITFIELD: Yes. And is it possible that too much can be invested in this? If there is no duplication of this ping, then what?

DARBY: Then, like I think everyone else says, you go back and refine the formula. It's a very complicated formula. It can actually yield many different places to look, as we have already seen.

So, we will keep looking. The formulas hopefully will produce better and better analysis. I'm hoping this is it. But the odds are low. WHITFIELD: And, Rob, then what? If the pings are not duplicated, the pulses are not picked up in this area with this new high-definition, greater sophisticated equipment, then what?

MCCALLUM: Then the search moves to a new phase and a new tempo.

What you have seen over the last few days is the search authorities reconfirming again and again that they believe that they are in the right place and actually suggesting that there are areas of a higher probability within the original search box.

So, then you go out there and you mow the lawn. You tow sonar through the water, casting quite a wide swathe, maybe 5,000 to 6,000 meters, and you mow the lawn. You simply image the entire sea floor and start on the best spots first and see what you find.

WHITFIELD: And, Tom Fuentes, what do you see next in this new twist in the investigation of whether Flight 370 tried to avoid detection, radar detection in Indonesia? That's the latest information coming out of today from Malaysian authorities, telling CNN.

FUENTES: Right.

WHITFIELD: How might this impact the next step in the investigation, criminal investigation?

FUENTES: I don't think it will.

I think that attaching motive is premature. They are just going to keep -- keep working. And for the criminal investigation to actually get anywhere, they need the airplane. They need to find the boxes. They need to find the wreckage. They need to analyze the wreckage. Without that, they are going to never know for sure. They can guess all they want about who flew the plane and what routing it took, but they won't know why, and they won't know why a lot of things until they really recover the aircraft.

WHITFIELD: And what do you see as the most important potential step this week, as we enter a new week and enter a fifth week after the disappearance of this plane?

FUENTES: I think the Australians are stuck.

I think if that Echo finds nothing, they are still going to have to commit to mapping the ocean floor, because the Chinese are going to say, we told you where we heard the pinger. It obviously was the last day of the shelf life of the pinger battery. So, it ran out. You just came, you didn't hear anything and you left?

They are not going to be able to leave. They're going to have to map that floor, as far as I can see.

WHITFIELD: All right.

And, quickly, Captain Darby, what do you see in what is potentially week five?

DARBY: Well, I don't -- I'm afraid we are going to find the boxes and the voice recorder is to going to have the last two hours. And that's not going to tell us what happened. We're going to know where the airplane went, but we're not going to know why.

So, even one of the best-case scenarios, finding everything, which is our greatest dream right now, may not yield the level of detail we need to understand why this happened.

WHITFIELD: All right, Captain Kit Darby, Rob McCallum, Tom Fuentes, thanks to all of you, gentlemen. Appreciate it.

FUENTES: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, much more straight ahead in the NEWSROOM throughout the afternoon and evening.

Also, we are also going to turn to another big story. An estimated seven million Afghans just went to the polls to vote for their next president -- details on that historic election next.

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WHITFIELD: All right, straight ahead, more on that British navy ship with state-of-the-art sonar equipment arriving in an area where a Chinese ship detected two pulse signals. Could we be any closer to possibly finding Flight 370?

First, a look at the other top stories we're following for you.

President and first lady Michelle Obama will be in Texas Wednesday. They will attend a memorial service for victims of the shooting rampage at Fort Hood. Three soldiers were killed and 16 hurt when investigators say Specialist Ivan Lopez opened fired before taking his own life. They say Lopez struggled with depression and anxiety.

After the shooting, President Obama vowed to -- quote -- "to get to the bottom of exactly what happened" -- end quote.

And despite threats of violence from the Taliban, an estimated seven million Afghans went to the polls this weekend to vote for their next president. Turnout was so high that some polling stations actually ran out of ballots.

CNN's Anna Coren has more on this historic election.

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, the people of Afghanistan certainly have reason to celebrate, following the success of the historic elections which will decide this country's next president.

Now, despite the recent spate of high-profile attacks and Taliban threats to disrupt these elections, seven million people turned out to vote. That's more than 50 percent of the voting population, of which a third were women.

But due to the high turnout, polling stations had to remain open for an extra hour while some in fact ran out of ballot papers. Now, there were no major security incidents, which is a credit to the Afghan national security forces. There were a number of isolated incidents around the country in which 20 people died.

But, by and large, these elections were peaceful. Now, vote counting is under way, but it is unlikely that we will know the preliminary results until the 28th of April.

It's highly unlikely that any of the top three candidates, Ashraf Ghani, Dr. Abdullah, or Dr. Rassoul, will claim more than 50 percent of the votes, which would secure the presidency, which means that this will then head to the runoff stage, with those elections due to take place at the end of May.

But while the people of Afghanistan may have to wait a little bit longer to find out who their next president is, the people believe firmly that the change they so desperately crave is coming -- back to you, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much, Anna Coren.

That is going to do it for me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

My colleague Ashleigh Banfield picks up our coverage from here.

Hi, Ashleigh.