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Flight 370 Searchers Find Possible New Signals; Sources: Pilot Was Last To Speak To Controllers; Two Stabbing Victims To Go Home Today

Aired April 10, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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

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CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, breaking right now, another new ping.

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KATE BOLDUAN, ANCHOR, CNN'S "NEW DAY": Officials confirming just minutes ago that searchers detected a possible underwater signal.

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COSTELLO: Promising new developments.

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MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: The batteries apparently are still alive, which is very, very good news.

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COSTELLO: Ships on the move as the clock keeps on ticking.

Plus, portrait of a suspect.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was a quiet kid.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's not a loner.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He had a very minor Facebook presence.

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COSTELLO: Breaking this morning, the FBI seizing computers and cell phones from the 16-year-old's home.

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UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: Three of the students remain in the ICU.

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COSTELLO: As a community comes together, heroes emerge.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are a number of heroes in this day. Many of them are students and I want you to write that.

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COSTELLO: And Ukraine, a call to put down weapons as a 48-hour deadline nears. Either resolve this through talks or force. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me. We begin this hour with breaking news and a very busy morning in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Right now we have a number of important new developments unfolding. Sources tell CNN that when the flight took that mysterious turn and fell from the radar, it must have plunged in altitude to between 4,000 and 5,000 feet.

Another new twist, 34 days after the flight's disappearance, Malaysia is finally confirming that it did, in fact, dispatch search aircraft soon after the plane vanished. Sources also tell us that investigators are now confident that it was indeed the flight's captain who radioed in that last message. And there was no sign of stress or a possible third party when he said those words, "Good night Malaysian 370."

Also this morning, the most important development, search crews discovered a possible new signal, raising hopes that they may be closing in on the flight's so-called black boxes, which could explain exactly what happened.

Let's begin with that new signal, a fifth signal picked up. CNN's Will Ripley is live in Perth, Australia, to tell us more. Hi, Will.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Yes, at this hour, they are analyzing the data from that sonar buoy which detected this fifth signal. Using sonar buoys is a pretty relatively new concept. This is technology that's been around for a long time, but they've never used it for a search operation. They have these P-3 planes. There are technicians that manually drop these buoys down into the water.

And then the buoys have an underwater listening device attached that can go down at least 1,000 feet and listen. And one of these buoys has detected a signal that they think could be coming from a data recorder from the plane. But they have to do the data analysis, figure out the frequency and whatnot so that those calculations are happening overnight here in Perth.

And we could learn as early as tomorrow morning when we expect the news conference could be held when they have something to announce. We could actually learn if this is a confirmed possible ping from a data recorder, which would be great news in this investigation.

But it's incredible, Carol. We're about to enter day 35 here. Still not one piece of physical evidence from the plane. No debris spotted. No photo. So obviously that's the big piece that's still missing.

COSTELLO: You're not kidding. But the other bit of positive news, let's center on the positive this morning, shall we, is they've narrowed that search area even farther in, right? Because all of the resources are going to one particular spot in the Indian Ocean. Tell us about that.

RIPLEY: Yes. You know, this is the smallest it's been yet, 22,000 square miles. Still a large area, but it seems like every day the search area is getting smaller. And they keep refining it because they've been analyzing the currents. They've been looking at where they think the debris may have floated over the past 34 going into day 35. And what they're doing is they're just sending these planes and these ships to do a visual search because they figure there has to be debris floating out there somewhere, and they're very determined to find it.

COSTELLO: Will Ripley reporting live from Perth, Australia.

So where does the investigation go from here? Let's bring in Captain Van Gurley, a former U.S. Navy oceanographer, and Fred Hegg, the vice president of Engineering at Falmouth Scientific Incorporated. Welcome, Gentlemen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Good morning. Thank you so much for being with me. I want to talk about these sonar buoys. Are they dependable, Fred?

FRED HEGG, VICE PRESIDENT, ENGINEERING, FALMOUTH SCIENTIFIC: Yes, they've been very dependable. They've been used for submarine reconnaissance for years. They're just using that technology that they've used for years, again, for submarine reconnaissance for a search and recovery mission.

COSTELLO: So Captain Gurley, now they've had five separate instances where they've picked up sound from underneath the water. How hopeful should we be?

VAN GURLEY, SENIOR MANAGER, METRON SCIENTIFIC SOLUTIONS: Well, Carol, I'm very hopeful that they are on the right place now. When you look at the accumulation of evidence and the repeated pings that all match, all the specifications we expect, I am confident they are on the right place. The fact that the P-3s now think they may have picked up something is even better news. That means the batteries are still alive. And it lets them refine the area they're going to have to look on the ocean bottom even better because it's a small area. But the smaller they get it, the faster the rest of the bottom search will be able to proceed.

COSTELLO: So Fred, why can't they find debris?

HEGG: From what I understand, one, we don't know how the plane went into the water. But from what I also understand, there was a pretty strong storm several days after the plane went down. So that debris, along with the storm and with the currents, could really be hundreds and hundreds of miles away.

COSTELLO: So Captain Gurley, if they never find any debris, does it matter in the search for those black boxes?

GURLEY: Well, Carol, I think it's important to remember -- to look at the fact we're really doing two searches now. There's the search that is proceeding on the ocean surface for any floating surface debris that may have -- still be there for still floating around and dispersed by the winds and currents. But the second search is on the ocean bottom. That's the real debris field and that's where they'll find the evidence to help answer questions of what happened with this flight.

COSTELLO: Fred, from what I understand, they won't send those drone submarines down to search for those black boxes until they no longer hear any sound. At that point in time -- and it's coming because it's been more than 30 days, and we know those batteries are slowly dying -- at that point they'll about underneath the water and search. How long might that take?

HEGG: That could take, with the search area as large as it is says, it could take many weeks. But the fact that they've narrowed it down now is very encouraging because the original 80,000 square mile area, when you talk that you're going to be able to survey maybe 10 to 30 square miles a day, we're talking in the area of seven years. Now that they've got -- the more they can narrow down the search area and keep that environment quiet, not run any sonars for many additional ships, try to minimize the sea traffic in the area, as quiet as they can keep that area so that they can keep listening for these potential pings from the black boxes. That's what they really want to do to be able to narrow -- really narrow down that search area.

COSTELLO: Well, they seem to be on their way to doing that. Fred Hegg, Captain Van Gurley, thanks so much for joining me this morning.

The big developments in the search for Flight 370. Malaysian sources now confirm Captain Zaharie Shah was the voice on that final communication, "Good night Malaysian 370." That's what he said to air traffic controllers. They also say that at one point the plane dipped between 4,000 and 5,000 feet. Nic Robertson is covering that part of the story from Kuala Lumpur. Tell us more -- Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we know from our sources is that five pilots in Malaysian Airlines were played recordings from the cockpit to the air traffic controllers. That told them who was in control of the -- who was speaking on the radio when it was on the ground, who was speaking on the radio when it was in the air.

These five pilots familiar, we're told, with both the first officer and the captain on board Flight 370, and we're told that they were able to identify the first officer as speaking on the radio when it was on the ground and the captain, Captain Zaharie, speaking on the radio when the plane was in the air, which would imply, through normal standard operating procedures, that while the plane was in the air, while it was flying, that the co-pilot, the first officer, would have been flying the aircraft.

What investigators have been trying to figure out was who made that final communication, "Good night Malaysian 370." We understand that was the captain, an important piece of information for investigators. Important also as they analyze what's happened with this flight. The dipping, we're told that it dropped altitude from a normal cruising altitude to about 4,000 to 5,000 feet above sea level. That was after it crossed the peninsula.

It was from military radar data that it disappeared from military radar before coming up and reappearing again and then taking off around the coast of Indonesia and then off into the South Indian Ocean. So all of this piecing together a picture, why did it dip in altitude? One assessment is possibly because it was crossing over what is a busy highway of flights going from Asia to India and onwards to Europe -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Interesting developments. Nic Robertson reporting live from Kuala Lumpur. So let's talk about those developments. For that I want to bring in Tom Fuentes, a CNN law enforcement analyst and former FBI assistant director. Welcome, Tom.

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Good morning. OK, so let's first talk about the captain making that last transmission to air traffic controllers. In your mind as an investigator, how much does that matter?

FUENTES: Well, I think normally, you know, it would matter a little, but may not matter a lot. I think what's more important is the whole stream of transmissions from the beginning, who was flying the plane, who was doing the radio work. You know, and whether there was stress in their voice and all of that. I think that, you know, I know that intense analysis is being done on the voice transmissions and recordings.

I would like to see the official results of that come out. I know the sources are supposed to be very good, and that may be fine, but I would like to see the official results of the intensive investigation that's going on with that.

COSTELLO: So they can use some kind of device to detect stress in someone's voice. That's what you're talking about.

FUENTES: Well, there are applications and analytical tools to do that. You know, there's some debate as to their reliability based on that these are short burst transmissions. They're not long conversations. Making it harder to determine the patterns of speech and the frequencies of the voice and that type of information. So you have short transmissions. Sometimes garbled transmissions depending on the quality of the radio transmission and the quality of the recordings. Again, still work being done on that.

COSTELLO: Is that work being done in the United States at all that you know of?

FUENTES: Well, right now they don't want to officially say. They don't want it released exactly how that work is being done.

COSTELLO: I understand. OK, so when you put things together, right -- and I'm theorizing here, I'll just come out and say it because I am --

FUENTES: Why not? Everybody is.

COSTELLO: I know, you're right. Just be honest about it, right?

FUENTES: Right.

COSTELLO: So the pilot made that last transmission to air traffic controllers. The plane made that mysterious left turn. Supposedly it skirted around Indonesia. We now know from sources that the plane dipped for some reason to 5,000 feet. And one of the theories associated with that is it was skirting radar again. So when you put all of those things together, it seems someone on board that plane was deliberately making the plane do those things, but does that necessarily lead to something criminal or nefarious?

FUENTES: Well, I mean, all along in how you've described that, it's if this happened, if that happened. And also the results of the analysis that they think the plane dipped down to 5,000 feet, not because the radar detected it going to 5,000, but because they lost it for a period of time. Now, we've heard so many variations for 35 days of difficulties and analyzing the radar and figuring out what they actually have or had at the time on their radar screens.

Suddenly they're going to be able to make a determination that it, on purpose, went down to 5,000, then came back up to altitude to be reacquired by their radar. Then, you know, when they said that it appeared to go around Indonesia, around the island of Sumatra, the northernmost island, that it had to be first to avoid radar, then two days later, it had to be to avoid crowded airspace, which it is crowded airspace in the middle of the night there.

So I would be -- you know, these are -- these are kind of guesses. They are guesses at what the motive was to do various things based on what I think has been often inaccurate analysis of what the plane did.

COSTELLO: Right. Our best bet is to recover those black boxes, right, to see what's on them. Then we'll know.

FUENTES: The flight data recorder will at least say whether the plane went up, down, left, right, sideways, turned back flips, whatever. That will be determined. Whether it went around Indonesia or went across the island of Sumatra without their noticing it or they don't want to admit they didn't notice it. That will be determined by the flight data recorder. There is a lot of information that will verify at least what direction altitude heading speed the airplane was flying at. It won't tell you why, but it will tell you what it was doing.

COSTELLO: Tom Fuentes, thanks, as usual. FUENTES: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Still to come on THE NEWSROOM, as investigators look at the data from those sonar buoys, we'll take a closer look how that will help direct the investigation. We'll talk about that next.

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COSTELLO: Welcome back to our special coverage in the search for Malaysia Flight 370. There are a number of new developments unfolding right now. Sources telling us that when that plane went off radar, it may have plunged in altitude to between 4,000 and 5,000 feet.

Also significant this morning, search crews have discovered a possible new signal which brings the total number of signals detected in that specific area in the Indian Ocean to five. And that, of course, is certainly raising hopes that investigators may be closing in on those black boxes.

For more now, let's bring in Mary Schiavo. She is a CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general at the Department of Transportation. She is live in Charleston, South Carolina. David Soucie is a CNN safety analyst. He joins me live from New York. Welcome to both of you.

So Mary, let's talk about this drop in altitude because now sources are telling us that for some reason, the plane dropped to 5,000 feet. Why would a pilot do that?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, there are many reasons why you might want a depressurization. You've got to get below 10,000 people so people can breathe without oxygen if you had a decompression in your aircraft, and two, you'd want to get out of the commercial traffic lanes, which are for commercial passenger jets, 18,000 feet and above.

If you didn't have a transponder because that means you have no collision avoidance system, and you could not communicate with air traffic control. However, as David mentioned earlier in the hour, and he makes a great point, you don't just go from 35,000 feet like a helicopter and drop down to 5,000 feet. You have to descend and then turn around and climb again.

So we want more information from the investigators and the radar people, did they just see it on radar and then didn't see it on radar, so they assume it descended or did they see the descent path? That would be interesting to know. We don't know that.

COSTELLO: We don't know so many things. So David, in your mind, because investigators in Malaysia say all of these things were deliberate acts. And if they did indeed drop to 5,000 feet, maybe it wasn't because of mechanical failure. I don't know. What do you think?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, if a deliberate act is to have a thunderstorm come through and make it lose the radar signal, then I guess they're right. But there's a lot of reasons it could have come off radar. And to make the assumption that because it went off of radar for 120 miles, which at that speed they were going, at that altitude, it would have had to be about 280 knots, which is about five miles -- or 5 minutes per -- excuse me -- well, at any rate, 120 -- it would be about 24 minutes is how long it would have been at that altitude.

And so for 24 minutes, a lot of things could have happened to have it go off of that radar for 24 minutes. I'm still not convinced that it was actually at that altitude. They're making conclusions, or we don't have enough information and they do.

COSTELLO: Mary, Malaysian officials are now admitting that they did send planes out to try to look for Flight 370 when it disappeared from the radar, but I'm not clear on how long that search lasted or why they turned around.

SCHIAVO: Right.

COSTELLO: What do you make of that?

SCHIAVO: Well, and the response seemed to be too little, too late. They sent them out after they had been alerted that the plane had already gone missing instead of when the plane had lost communication. So at the time they were alerted that it had gone missing, you know, they didn't know where the plane was. Apparently they must have headed, you know, west to look for it, but then they said that they never intercepted it. Apparently that response just came too late to do anything. And just hearing about it now is also rather interesting.

COSTELLO: Yes. That is the most interesting part, right, David? Like why didn't they tell us this 34 days ago?

SCHIAVO: Yes. And what's interesting to me about that is they had some intelligence at that point, too, because when they dispatched these aircraft, they didn't dispatch the military attack airplanes, which could have downed an aircraft if they were suspicious or trying to protect their airspace. That's not what they sent. They sent search airplanes out.

That tells you that not only did they know the area that it went, so they obviously had radar or some kind of information saying the aircraft went that direction, that it took off in the direction towards Beijing, that's interesting. Then they also knew that it wasn't an invasion of the airspace. They knew it was a search.

Like Mary said, it was too little, too late. It's interesting to me they knew exactly what they were doing, where they went. They went back to the original area and did the search there. Not where they were at with those airplanes.

COSTELLO: Mary Schiavo, David Soucie, thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a Pennsylvania community looks for answers after a stabbing spree at a local high school. Elizabeth Cohen is at the hospital with some of those wounded students that are now being treated. Good morning.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Seven patients still in the hospital here. One very special patient, a real hero. I'll tell you why he's so special after the break.

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COSTELLO: Police have searched the home of the 16-year-old suspect accused in a stabbing attack at a high school in suburban Pittsburgh. Alex Hribal will be prosecuted as an adult on a laundry list of charges. He faces four counts of attempted murder, one for each person critically injured. The total number of victims reflected in the 21 counts of aggravated assault. He's also charged with possession of a weapon on school property.

All right, we're going to go to the Forbes Regional Hospital now. There's a press conference starting. Some of the victims from that stabbing are being treated here. We expect one of the wounded students to speak soon. His name's Brett Hurt. He'll be talking with his mother, Amanda. But let's listen to the doctor right now.

DR. CHRIS KAUFMANN, DIRECTOR OF TRAUMA, FORBES, REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER: -- for our hospital as it was a shift change time and so we had double staff. We had three trauma surgeons here. We had about five anesthesiologists to care for them as they arrived. The first three patients that arrived were taken to the operating room. The first in about 5 minutes. The second in about 10 minutes, and the second and the third one about 30 minutes later because we were making sure that we didn't have yet a more critical patient showing up in the interim.

These three patients are still in the ICU today. Two of them remain on ventilators. One of them is doing fine and conversant, no longer needing the support of a ventilator. Of the additional four patients that we received from the scene, two of those are going home today. And the other two will likely go home sometime over the weekend. They're all doing well. So I think with that opening statement on what's going on, I'll stop at this point.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have one that's also in critical? How is that patient doing?

KAUFMANN: We have two of our ICU patients have planned additional surgeries. So at the end of their operations yesterday, they were planned to return to the operating room. And over the course of the next three days, they will both be returned to the operating room at least once. So that's a reality of trauma surgery today is that we stopped the operation at a point when the patient either becomes cold, has problems with coagulation, and we think it's better to stop and come back another day. Another reason is to take a look at the injuries and make sure everything is healing as we expect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doctor, can you say whether the wounds in the patients show a sign of some kind of struggle. KAUFMANN: There's no way to tell. In trauma surgery, we realize that we don't know the position of the patient when they were stabbed. Usually somebody doesn't stand still in that type of an episode because it's not always a surprise that somebody is -- has been stabbed.