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Pistorius Testimony; Two Signals Detected; British Ship Echo in Area of Reported Pings; Families Frustrated by Media Coverage; NCAA Championship Game Tips Off Tonight

Aired April 07, 2014 - 09:30   ET

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

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: But it wasn't just that story. I mean, I sat in that courtroom and I think his list of how he or friends or family had been affected by crime went on for about 45 minutes.

Example after example, he listed throughout his childhood, his adolescence, his recent adulthood, crimes against friends, attacks in their homes, hijackings in his father's house and with his father's car, home burglaries when he was a kid. He just went over and over and again of how vulnerable he felt based on all of these experiences.

And, of course, this is important why? Because he has said all along that he was terrified. He thought Reeva Steenkamp was a burglar. And, of course, the fact that he was so terrified plays into his side of the story and he needs to back that up by saying why was he so scared. And this long track record of sort of a connection to crime, a vulnerability to crime, in addition to the fact that he also felt vulnerable without his prosthetics on, all plays again into the defense's case.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Robyn Curnow reporting live from South Africa, thank you.

And, by the way, court's over for the day. It will resume tomorrow and I would presume Oscar Pistorius will again take the stand.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, officials call it the most promising lead yet, electronic signals from deep below the surface of the Indian Ocean. Are we closer to solving the mystery?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Opening bell on Wall Street. Oh, it happened just about five minutes ago. Stocks likely to be a bit bumpy today over concerns about company profits not growing strongly enough (INAUDIBLE) enough. Later this week, big banks will report earnings and the experts say the outlook, well, it isn't looking good.

Ringing the opening bell, by the way, is the president of the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

We're back in a minute.

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COSTELLO: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

It could be the breakthrough search teams in the southern Indian Ocean have been hoping for. Australian and Chinese ships picking up signals that officials say are consistent with those sent by a black box. Officials, while warning that those signals still need to be confirmed, call it, quote, "the most promising lead to date." Joining me now, CNN aviation correspondent Richard Quest.

Good morning, Richard.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. What a weekend it was.

COSTELLO: What a weekend it was. Should we be hopeful, because we've heard this song and dance before?

QUEST: Yes, but we've never really had the optimism that we were hearing over the weekend or late last night from Angus Houston. He is the man who is in charge of the Australian operation. He used phrases like the most promising lead, he's encouraged, he's optimistic.

Now, to be sure, hearing those pings on two separate occasions from what they believe are different devices -- in one occasion it lasted for some -- more than two hours, which is exactly, Carol, what you want because you want a continuous sound. And the second one was for 13 minutes. Again, a continuous sound.

Remember, Haixun 01 (ph), the Chinese ship, had only heard it for a matter of 90 seconds or so. The fact that Ocean Shield heard it in such a way gave them great optimism that this indeed (INAUDIBLE) - and one other point, that it's in the right place. They've refined the satellite handshake data. They now believe it puts it exactly where the Ocean Shield is.

COSTELLO: So, just to show our viewers, this is what they're looking for, one of the black boxes, so to speak.

QUEST: Sure.

COSTELLO: And right here is where the sounds would be coming from. You can see it's not very big.

The other important point I think is the pings were at 37 kilohertz. Why is that important?

QUEST: It's a particular frequency. And 37.5 kilohertz is the frequency that those pingers transmit on. And it is a frequency designed to be heard not by the human ear, but by acoustic listeners. And those acoustic listeners will then provide both a visual reference point, a wave form, and an audio sound, which can be heard then by the ear.

And the pinger is not only designed for the 37.5, but the rhythmic one-second pings. Because there's many noises in the ocean. Some of them are mammal made. Others could be from other machinery. The sound -- we learned last night, and over the last few days, sound travels far, especially if it gets into the deep sea sound channel. But the pinger, the very noise of the pinger is designed to be unique. It is designed to be identifiable. And that is why Angus Houston said last night he was encouraged because it had the characteristics of the black box noise.

COSTELLO: OK. So if the black boxes are somewhere in that area, why is there no evidence of debris anywhere around it because they've searched a wide area around that spot, right?

QUEST: And there you have put your finger on one of the most troubling aspects of the discovery. Because they now have to triangulate, basically hear the pinger again and again and again. And by doing that, work out exactly where it is. And one would hope that they're in the vicinity, the very close vicinity, and not on the outer extremities.

But you might have hoped, and it would have been nice to have had some debris, anything to back up that claim. Because here's the problem, Carol, even a month on, there should be something. And even if the plane ditched in the water in the most gentle fashion, the experts say it would have broken up in some shape or fashion. And even if it went down almost intact, something would have broken off simply by pressure. So, the weakness of the moment is no debris, which is why the planes are going back over there to extend that area to see if they can find any debris.

Also, they will be bringing in the autonomous submersible that will go down once they have relocated that ping.

COSTELLO: Richard Quest, many thanks, as usual.

QUEST: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a high (INAUDIBLE) British ship is now in the area where search crews heard those pings. Rene Marsh joins me with what this ships can do.

Hi, Rene.

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Carol. Coming up, we're going to flesh out what with HMS Echo do now that it is in the zone and will it help locate or determine if those are truly the pingers from MH-370. That's straight ahead.

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COSTELLO: A British navy ship called the HMS Echo is now in the area where that Chinese crew detected two audio signals. The Echo is equipped with a state-of-the-art sonar that can map the ocean floor. As you know, two pinger detectors picked up sound within 350 nautical miles of each other. Rene Marsh joins me now with more.

Good morning, Rene. RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION & GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. So the HMO (ph) Echo again in that general vicinity of where that Chinese patrol ship detected those pinging sounds both on Friday and Saturday. Now, the goal is to try and find that sound again and either confirm or rule out that it is from the black boxes belonging to Flight 370.

Now, keep in mind, this area is different from where the Australian ship, the Ocean Shield, detected pinging sounds on two separate occasions. The first one for two hours, the second for about 13 minutes.

So, let's talk more about the HMS Echo. We do know that it is designed to chart the sea floor with state-of-the-art sonar capability. I want to show you two examples of the images this ship has generated in past missions. These images from July of last year when Echo made surveys of 20 shipwrecks on the seabed near Libya. So you're looking at what it's capable of doing.

But on this particular mission near that Chinese ship, we know that Echo would be using two principle pieces of technology. The first one would be passive sonar. The second one would be active sonar. So the passive sonar simply sits in the ocean and it listens. It's listening possibly for that pinging sound. And the active sonar, what that would do, would feed out energy and waits for a return response. And that would help this vessel in locating debris.

Carol.

COSTELLO: Fascinating. Rene Marsh, many thanks.

I'm back in a minute.

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COSTELLO: Despite the fact two pinger detectors may have picked up sound from Flight 370's black boxes the families of those on board still want to see physical proof that the plane crash. On Sunday about a dozen people gathered to pray and light candles for the 239 people on board. The husband of one passenger told CNN, quote, "If the plane is there, it's there, we can't change it. But I am still hoping for a miracle to happen."

Sarah Bajc, the partner of an American passenger Phillip Wood released this statement. It says quote, "Until they physically locate the bulk of the plane with the black box intact and passenger bodies, I won't believe it. A few bits and pieces of wreckage or a pinging that isn't verified could just be planted evident meant to distract us."

Some of those families do fear that news of a pinging noise is just another report giving them false hope that this mystery will finally be solved.

Joe Johns has more on why so many relatives are sick of everything at this moment.

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JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Foreign media including CNN covering the missing plane mystery are taking heat in Kuala Lumpur. The constant drum beat of stories and the absence of hard facts about the fate of the plane have created a public relations nightmare and bruised the Malaysian national self-image.

Some Malaysians say they are being portrayed in a negative light. This protester says the information which has been disseminated is inaccurate and not based on facts.

It's not just TV news taking the hit the Malaysian defense minister was so incensed over a piece in "The London Daily Mail" about the alleged emotional state and marital problems of Flight 370's captain that he publicly questioned the tabloid report at a news conference.

HISHAMMUDDIN HUSSEIN, MALAYSIAN ACTING TRANSPORT MINISTER: I want to confirm that I don't think it came from the police and how Daily Mail got that information you would have to ask Daily Mail.

JOHNS: The Daily Mail did not respond to CNN's request for comment. Mr. Hishammuddin later tweeted that the cabinet had asked the Malaysian Attorney General to compile evidence and advise on possible legal action for false reporting.

(on camera): Strict Malaysian law allows the criminal prosecution of false reporting. Private individuals can sue in civil court for libel and slander though a practicing attorney in Kuala Lumpur doesn't see the government escalating tensions with the media.

SYAHREDZAN JOHAN, ATTORNEY: You see these statements, which perhaps it is political in nature. You have to show that we're not just taking it, we will give it back if need be. Whether they actually take that action, to be completely honest, I doubt that they will take that cost.

JOHNS: Legal issues aside the politics of Flight 370 are extremely sensitive here, especially when it comes to the plane's captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah. He's been described as a supporter of the country's opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim who defends the pilot's reputation but has harshly criticized the government's handling of the plane, the search and the investigation.

ANWAR IBRAHIM, MALAYSIAN OPPOSITION PARTY LEADER: Initially I thought they are just pure incompetent but when they continue to conceal information, I have grounds to be more suspicious.

JOHNS (on camera): In response to such talk, the Malaysian defense minister recently went on the record issuing a firm denial of what he called the extraordinary assertion that the government was somehow complicit in the case of Flight 370.

Joe Johns, CNN, Kuala Lumpur.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: Ahead in the NEWSROOM, someone compared the search for the missing Flight 370 to looking for a needle in a haystack. I'll talk to one expert next hour who says the detection of those pinging sounds coming from the ocean could be that haystack. That's ahead on the next hour of NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Oh let's talk a little college basketball now because the championship tips off tonight in Arlington, Texas. Can you believe who's vying for the title? No one can. The number seven seeded UConn Huskies will take on the number eight seeded Kentucky Wildcats. Both teams were absent from last year's tournament. UConn was banned for poor academic performance and Kentucky simply did not make the cut.

My bracket's dead, Andy Scholes.

ANDY SCHOLES, BLEACHER REPORT: You know I bet it is Carol along with everyone else. You know no one could have predicted this game. You didn't, I didn't. And the only people that had this in their bracket are probably those that went to UConn or Kentucky or they still go there right now. Because these two teams have just been on incredible runs over the last two weeks and the whole season has been quite a journey for the young Kentucky Wildcats. They're the season number one team in the country after bringing in arguably the best freshman class ever.

Fans were so confident before the season that they wearing 40-0 T- shirts. But the team went through plenty of growing pains they dropped out of the top 25 right before the tournament. But over the last two weeks the super-freshmen, led by the Harrison twins -- they've really grown up. They're playing better than ever, that's why even though they're in eighth seed, they're favored to win tonight's game.

But if there's one thing we have learned, you can't count out the UConn Huskies, they have pulled off four straight upsets to get to tonight's championship game. UConn, they don't have the superior talent like Kentucky but their coach Kevin Ollie has them believing that they are the best team in the country.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a lot of heart and a lot of will. And coach always told us that this is a special team and he's been saying it all year, he said it all last year, this is a special team and we really believe that.

KEVIN OLLIE, COACH, UCONN HUSKIES: They're made for this championship game. Hopefully Connecticut is on that big billboard at the jumbotron, whatever Jerry Jones called it, it's says we're national champions and that's all we want.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: One Kentucky fan actually saw this run by the Wildcats coming all along. Tyler Austin Black got a tattoo back in arch that said "2014 National Champions". People called him crazy back then. But now, Carol, he's one win away from looking like a genius. He'll be here at the stadium tonight to watch the game in person.

Tipoff between UConn and Kentucky tonight, it's a late one, 9:00 to 10:00 Eastern. So if you woke up early this morning, you might want to mix in a nap sometime this afternoon, so you can stay up late and watch the game. It should be another great one.

COSTELLO: Come on, Andy, make a prediction. Come on.

SCHOLES: I'm going with the young kids, Kentucky. I think they win. They're the favorites and they've just been on a role. They have got seven McDonald's all Americans -- that's like the most ever for a team -- Carol. So we'll see if the youth can win out tonight.

COSTELLO: OK. So I'll take UConn just to be cantankerous. Andy Scholes -- thanks so much.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.