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New Update In Search for Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370; Violence and Tensions In Ukraine Quickly Escalating; Two Shootings At Two Separate Jewish-Related Locations

Aired April 13, 2014 - 15:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello again, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. We're watching two big stories. The search area is expanding in the Indian Ocean for the missing Malaysia flight 370. This is happening as the search move into day 38 now.

Also, we're following breaking news in Ukraine where violence and tensions are quickly escalating. You are about to see masked men pinning a man against the wall. This is in a town only about 100 miles from Ukraine's border with Russia. Keep in mind, this is happening some months after Crimea voted to succeed from Ukraine and joined Russia. A move the rest of the world has not recognized.

It is also where those masked men took over the police headquarters. This video, all new in to the CNN NEWSROOM, Ukrainian security forces claimed to have launched an operation to clear the pro-Russian protesters out. But a CNN crew in the city saw no sign of a large Ukrainian security force and this video just in this afternoon. Its social media video that purported showed grow Ukrainian protests beaten and bloody. CNN cannot confirm the authenticity of this video.

All right, let's take you live over to Nick Paton Walsh Who is in Donetsk. That is about 130 miles from the Russian border.

So Nick, what are you hearing from Ukraine's government on this rising violence?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it seems as though we're into a new phase here. This violence, which is effectively pro-Russian militants back up by pro-Russian protesters is taking a series of town on the outskirts of the next region, the main city in which we are standing in here. It has been escalating in the last 36 hours. Really gone for a moment where everyone standing off and positioning themselves to actual violence being normal currency of what is happening here.

That's prompted a response from the government which this morning was in effective. They called an anti terror operation into (INAUDIBLE), the town taken. And one security official telling us, they actually didn't get as far as a town (INAUDIBLE) in the way, one of them killed there. Now, the president of Ukraine, the interim president I should day, releasing a statement in which he gave an explicit deadline. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OLEXANDR TURCHYNOV, ACTING PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE (through translator): We did everything to avoid human victims but we are ready to give an answer to all attempts at invasion, destabilization and armed terrorist actions. The national security and defense council took the decision to launch a full scale anti-terrorist operation with the participation of the armed forces of Ukraine. We won't let Russia repeat the Crimean scenario in the eastern region of Ukraine. For those who didn't shoot our soldiers, who will put weapons down and leave the captured administrative building by Monday, I signed a decree to guarantee they will not receive any punishment for their actions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH: Now, that's 9:00 tomorrow morning. People in these buildings have to lay down their weapons. They will now be amnestied or basically the Ukrainian army is coming in.

There are two question, really, have to answer. It's unlikely the first that we'll see these militants lay down their weapons. They feel they have the upper hand here in most of the town. You see, there has been not really Ukrainian government presence to make the sales at all.

Secondly, the question as you see and as I said, such a minimal law enforcement response from the Ukraine. Does Kiev really have the manpower to come in here empty handed enough and try and suppress these pro-Russian militants and protesters? I should say both because we are seeing a lot have come in on the side of the protests here.

So that's really what tomorrow will bring as the key escalation here. And I think many people are deeply concern too if Ukraine army does intervene in this substantially move out and will have the response from Russia.

The Russian foreign minister saying it's up to the west to find a way out of this crisis and calling on Ukraine to stop declaring war on its own people, or which really reminds everybody about the 40,000 troops on the other side of the Russian-Ukrainian border and the potential for them to intervene if Moscow thinks (INAUDIBLE) pro Russian protests is basically are under threat here -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Nick Paton Walsh, thank you so much.

So, what is the Obama administration saying about the latest moves in Ukraine?

Here is U.N. ambassador Samantha Power on ABC's "This Week."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAMANTHA POWER, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.K.: It has all of the telltale signs that we saw in Crimea. It is professional. It is coordinated. There's nothing grassroots seeming about it. I think we have seen the sanctions can bite. And if actions like the kind of what we've seen over the last few days continue, you're going to see a ramping up of those sanctions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Joining me now on the phone is our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.

So Barbara, what has been the reaction on this latest stance in the Ukraine?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Well, Fred, what you're hearing from top administration, official say is what we've been hearing for several weeks, that Russia has to de-escalate the position. The U.S. has the position that it's Russian agents and provocateurs, who are also secretary of state John Kerry, that are behind this violence in the eastern Ukraine as that they have to stop commenting that violence and they have to pull back on the 40,000 troops that U.S. says is on that Ukraine-Russia border.

Now, the Russian are giving no pointer on this at this point. If you saw Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said that Ukraine authority has to, in words, stop war against their people. The big concern now is that all of this will add up to basically the provocation that the U.S. fears Russia has been waiting for in order to send its troops into Ukraine and that's really the effort, the diplomatic effort to stop that and the threat of additional sanctions if that was to be carried out, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thank you so much, Barbara Starr in the volatility there.

Meantime, vice president Joe Biden travels to Kiev, Ukraine in about a week. The White House said quote "the vice president will underscore the United Stated strong support for united democratic Ukraine that makes its own choices about its future path," end quote.

And the other big story that we are following for you right now. The search area for missing flight 370 is now getting bigger after days of shrinking. Today, officials in Australia said the visual search area expanded to a 22,000 square-mile area. That's almost 40 percent bigger than yesterday's search area. The big focus is still trying to detect pings consistent with a black box that crews last heard on Tuesday. An official with the company that builds pingers tells CNN the batteries are most likely dead or very close to it.

Will Ripley is following every step of the search in Perth.

So Will, why did they expand this visual search area?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, because they are continuing to fly out every day and they still haven't found a piece of debris. And so, they are constantly looking at the data, at the currents and they are trying to get a handle on where this debris field, if there is still debris floating, where it could be. And you know, they continue to search tirelessly. Not only above the surface but under water as well trying to listen to see if there are any pings left from the black box. Not a surprise that the black box manufacturers saying now that those batteries might be dead. Pings might have stop.

We know that the pings that were detected last on Tuesday and previously on Saturday, they are getting weaker each time. The pinger locator was able to lock on to them. So, this could actually be a key week for the search, Fred, because at some point, and I can guarantee you, there are conversations happening behind the scenes right now. They are going to have to make the decision that there is not anything to hear. We need to start getting down there and looking.

This is -- they have narrowed down as much as is going to happen using the pinger locator and then they get the submersible down there to see what they can find.

WHITFIELD: And so, it sounds like the searchers are in concert with what some of the developers of the company that actually builds pingers saying that it is likely the batteries are dead so they are not likely to hear anything more at this point?

RIPLEY: Yes. You know, not anything publicly yet. That hasn't actually been confirmed by the search chief Angus Houston who has been, you know, whenever he has something significant to announce, he calls for a press conference and announces it. But we know, he hasn't called a press conference for several days now.

So as far as we know, nothing new has been found. Nothing new has been heard. And so, the next time he calls that press conference, Fred, is going to be announcing that something has been found or to announce that the search effort might be shifting to a new phase at some point soon.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thank you so much, Will Ripley in Perth.

Up next, searchers have heard nothing but silence for days now. Four days, no pings at all. Our panel weighs in on what the silence means and where they need to go next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, we're now learning today that the aerial search area for flight 370 is expanding in the southern portion of the Indian Ocean after a more study of ocean currents in that part of the ocean and other data, the search area is now some 40 percent larger than it was yesterday. It's also now been five days since searchers have heard any kind of ping that they believe might have come from the plane's black boxes.

Let's go now to our panel at this hour. Bob Francis is a former vice chairman of the NTSB, CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo is a former inspector general for the U.S. department of transportation. She is now an aviation attorney who represents families suing airlines in crashes and disasters, and Rob McCallum is a CNN analyst, an ocean search specialist and vice president at Williamson and Associates, and Captain Van Gurley. He is a retired Navy oceanographer and a senior manager at Metron Scientific Solutions.

All right, good to see all of you.

So, we've had several days of silence now, five days since the last confirmed ping.

And so Rob, at this point, does this simply cement the idea that the batteries are likely dead and that it's time to now think about other assets in which to introduce to this area?

ROB MCCALLUM, CNN ANALYST: Yes, I think so. I mean, it is the manufacturer is being very clear about the battery life and, you know, every good effort is being expanded but it's now looking like the batteries are fading and it's time to start mowing the lawn, as we say, start to scan the sea floor.

WHITFIELD: And Captain Gurley, it seems that the battery is either dead or it's dying. If they haven't heard anything in five days, I mean, why wouldn't they already have made the decision either publicly or at least to send the Bluefin into the water. What would be the delay in your view?

CAPTAIN VAN GURLEY, SENIOR MANAGER, METRON SCIENTIFIC SOLUTIONS: Well, what the Australians have been very consistent about is that they wanted to give every possible chance to continue to pick any dying signal from the pingers because that would let them refine the area. That for the next phase of the search, the slowest phase of the search, which is mowing the lawn, as Rob said, at the ocean bottom.

So any more information that they can glean over the next couple of days could save weeks in the other phase of the search. That is why they are taking the time. A little investment now may save a lot of time now.

WHITFIELD: And Mary, you have expressed some confidence, the fact that they have expanded the aerial search. And that really is a search for looking in for any kind of floating debris. But that doesn't necessarily mean that the search looking for the contained area, that 17-mile radius where the last four pings were heard has been expanded. In your view, why is it encouraging that the aerial search would be expanded?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, I don't know that it's, you know, just wildly encouraging. I think they are doing is giving one last final push, a last-ditch effort, if you will, just to get that plane out there, further out, for the farthest radius to see if by any chance there is any wreckage anywhere to be found because even a few pieces would help narrow the search. So I think it is one last big push. Maybe almost a Hail Mary pass, if you will, to try and find anything that they can to help them zero in on where to go on the ocean floor because as the previous guests have said, once they put those Bluefins in, that's it. It could be a long, hard process.

WHITFIELD: And Rob, in your view of the Bluefin is a valuable tool but at the same time, it is not the only one. You think there are others that should be introduced to the scene, like what?

MCCALLUM: Well, you know, the tool that is going to be used is side scan sonar and you can deploy side scan sonar one of two ways. You can put it on an AUV, autonomous underwater vehicle, like the Bluefin- 21 or you can tow it through the ocean on a sled coder, a towed sledder or a towed array. The advantage of AUV is that they can be deployed very quickly. And the disadvantage is they have a relatively limited range because, of course (INAUDIBLE).

So the Bluefin might search something like 30 miles a day whereas a towed array may search 125 to 185 miles a day. So, it's a question of scale. If the search area is going to be larger, then you need more tools. If it's going to be relatively confined to just the pinger locations, it could be small.

WHITFIELD: And Bob, in your view, something can be learned from every investigation. This one is unprecedented. There isn't anything like it. Everyone has agreed that they haven't seen this kind of mystery, ever.

So in your view, based on the experiences, whether be how the Malaysian authorities handle things, whether it is the way in which all of these countries are coming together in the underwater and aerial searchers, what technology or what needs to come from this? What is the viable lesson on your view from this investigations and the capabilities, the tools that are needed to get to the bottom of an investigation like this quicker?

BOB FRANCIS, FORMER VICE CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: Well, I think that equipping the aircraft with a way to automatically transmit data to satellites is the answer and there are lots of different ways of doing that. It's going to involve some expense on the part of the airlines to equip aircraft that are doing oceanic runs. But as a percentage of what it costs them to operate an aircraft, it's really not going to be enormous.

One of the interesting things here is I think to look at the comparison between air France and here. And air France, of course, never had pingers. So they were -- they had a tremendous amount of territory to have to look at, even though they had a track. So I think that those pingers have got to encourage us. Air France took two years. I would hope that having the pingers and the data from the pingers will allow us to not have it go on anywhere near that long.

WHITFIELD: All right, captain Van Gurley, Mary Schiavo, Rob McCallum and Bob Francis. Thanks to all of you. Appreciate it. We will check back with you momentarily.

And we're going to talk more about some extremely difficult work that the searchers are doing there and how they avoid complacency.

Also, a tense situation in Ukraine as violence escalates and now word that Russia wants to talk to the United Nations. I'll have a live report, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

WHITFIELD: All right, this breaking news, just moments ago. We learned that Russia had requested a meeting tonight at 8:00 Eastern time with the U.N. security council on the crisis in Ukraine. So far the council has not responded. This comes after two days of violence where gunman stormed buildings in two towns.

Nick Paton Walsh is live for us in Donetsk, Ukraine and Richard Roth joins us on the phone.

So Richard, to you first. What does Russia feel like they would get out of this proposed meeting?

RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Well, at the very least, Russia feels, OK, Ukraine has had its turn at the security council demanding meetings and making the case sort uses against Ukraine, Ukraine and Ukraine citizens. Now Russia is going to say that its citizens have been under attack in Ukraine. The meeting will happen. Luxemburg (ph), a member of the Security Council has confirmed at 8:00 tonight, it's not clear yet whether it will be public meeting with speeches or a private consultation -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: OK. And what, I guess will a constitute decision here, what the U.N. Security Council actually be tasked to do?

ROTH: Well, they have many roles in times of crises. But with Russia having a veto, the Security Council has not been able to produce any significant diplomatic action. This will probably be more venting by Russia and, you know, maybe potentially set up another visit or two by U.N. officials. It's little early to say what exactly can come out of this. Russia also asking European security organization to get a hearing on what is happening there. But it's not a good sign of how things are going over there.

WHITFIELD: So it sounds mostly just publicly kind of stating its case.

All right, Nick Paton Walsh to you now in Donetsk. So, what kind of reaction might be coming from people in that region once they hear that this meeting would be under way?

WALSH: You have to look at the timing, really, Fredricka. I mean, this is designed to be occurring ahead of tomorrow's 9:00 local time in the morning deadline laid down by President Turchynov, the acting president of Ukraine. He said, look, put down your weapons. Give up the government building you have taken for a Russian protests and you'll get amnesty or else, a wide scale anti-terror operation, his words, spearhead by the Ukrainian army.

That's a substantial escalation in Kiev, potential response here. And perhaps the Security Council meeting, as Richard was hinting, that may be Russia's chance to lay out its case, will indicate what it says and the abuses against protesters in support of Moscow here in Ukraine.

But it's really the speed at which it is being called. Fred, we know the position of all people in the Security Council. And he said the veto, as Richard said, the veto makes it very unlikely we'll see any particularly strong mandate coming out of this meeting. Perhaps this is ticking of the box. We're worried about what will happen if Ukrainian army does move in because we know there are 40,000 Russian troops on the other side of the Ukrainian Russian border and Moscow has the part. So they led so recently hinted it is quite happy to intervene if it sees pro-Russian protesters as the rank of this under threat in Ukraine. Extraordinarily tense times ahead and no real hope, I think, the diplomacy, it will happen overnight in New York is going to calm the atmosphere here, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, the latest move in this very volatile sort of chess game.

All right, thank you so much, Nick Paton Walsh as well as to our Richard Roth.

All right, in the meantime, we're going to return to the search for flight 370. It has become a real hunt for the ping.

Next, see what it is like for the team listening to those pings for hours and hours on end.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Search crews looking for flight 370 are combing through a now expanded area according to Australian officials. The aerial search area today is 22,000 square miles. That's highlighted by the red boxes on this map. All right, the gray spot are places crews have already searched and so far, no signs of any debris.

And the one shred of evidence in the ocean depth, the four pings consistent with the black box, which haven't been heard since Tuesday, Malaysia's acting transport minister stressed how important it is to find those black boxes. And he said until they are found, no one can be cleared, even though the police have not found anything suspicious.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HISHAMMUDDIN HUSSEIN, MALAYSIAN ACTING TRANSPORT MINISTER: That is an ongoing thing and I don't think he would have meant that they have all been cleared because unless we find more information specifically on data in the black box, I don't think anybody will see that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And the only way to get the critical information is to find the black boxes, wherever they may be. And they could be resting in silt and mud miles below the ocean surface.

Right now, the pings heard last week are the only clue and the crew tasked with listening for those signals are trying to find them again.

Brian Todd takes us behind the scenes of their operation.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, no one knows their names. They spend hours and days in an isolated confined space in the middle of the Indian Ocean often starring at nothing, listening to silence.

But right now the sonar technicians aboard the Ocean Shield may have the most important job in this entire search effort.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): We're hanging on what they are hearing. The hopes of finding the black boxes for Malaysia airlines flight 370 rests on a few anonymous technicians hunkered down inside of a control bunker on the Ocean Shield.

MIKE DEAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SALVAGE AND DIVING, U.S. NAVY: Day and night, there is no break. They are pretty much on all the time and what they do is so important to us.

TODD: We went behind the scenes at Phoenix International, the company that made the towed pinger locator that scouring the search area for black box pings. Phoenix has nine people on the Ocean Shield. Among them, sonar techs tasked with looking at monitors, listening and listening some more.

PAUL NELSON, PROJECT MANAGER, PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL: You'll sit for days at a time listening to nothing. And then you might hear a chiropractor but you won't hear another one. So, until you can duplicate it and run it back at different angles, only until then are you positive that you have it.

TODD: And even then, experts say, sound in the ocean can play so many tricks on your ears.

DEAN: Several people can look at a signal and see different things. Because all they are recording is sound energy.

TODD: False positives from fishing and research equipment left in the area, from debris and trouble conditions, from the vessel itself can also play tricks on the techs.

Phoenix's operators onboard the Ocean Shield are good at weeding out false positives. They do it by carefully monitoring the specific frequencies and the repetition rate. And in op centers like this one on board, they are highly trained to be disciplined and to discriminate to block out any other potential sounds.

Paul Nelson who worked the search for Air France light 447 describes the sonar tech worked as meticulous, tedious, time devouring.

NELSON: There's two shifts. They work 12-hour shifts. So the first crew who work from midnight to noon and the next team will work noon to midnight. You're monitoring the weather, you're watching what is coming as far as weather, you're monitoring the seas and you're sitting in front of the screen hoping and praying that you're going to hear something.

TODD: Does it drive them a little stir crazy?

NELSON: Everyone looks forward to the mealtime. That breaks up the monotony.

TODD: Some of these techs have been doing this for more than 30 years, decades of often thankless dedication, just to find that one breakthrough pattern of blitz.

NELSON: Everybody is so focused on this task at hand, that once you know it, it's a tremendous feeling. That's the high.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: Once signals are detected and confirmed, it's reported up the chain of command. Top officials make the announcements that we always hear and the techs simply go back to work with us still not knowing their names -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thank you so much, Brian Todd. Appreciate that.

To see how arduous this work is for some of the searchers, how much longer can they keep up this intensity as they look for the plane?

Let's bring back our panel. Bob Francis, Mary Schiavo, Rob McCallum and Captain Van Gurley are back with me. So how do you keep the searchers motivated and encouraging and fresh? I wonder, Captain Gurley, if you could tackle that first. You know, how do you keep them motivated?

GURLEY: Well, these are professionals and this is the kind of job they love to be able to solve for us all. And when I started my navy career, I was on submarines using very similar technology as the sonar technician and you rotate folks through. Every couple of half hour or so that you don't have somebody sort of zone out on the stack. You've got to stay fresh. You got to be alert because you never know when those signals will sort of pop into your headphones.

WHITFIELD: And Mary, we're talking about day 38, though, you know. It seems like that sounds simple maybe when you have a couple of weeks or a couple of days, but now you are talking day 38. Is there going to be a concern or worry that you have to find more personnel to swap out, to change these schedules?

SCHIAVO: Well, I think that is true and there are also some hints about what is coming next when United States sent in and agreed to provide a logistic ship, the "Cesar Chavez" and that's kind of like a big gas station and a big supermarket all tied into one ship. And so, they will be able to refuel, refresh, repair things, supply tools, fuel, all of that. And so that will be a big help for operations in the area. Particularly for the next step when ships and the support crew will be out there for, you know, a long, extended period. So that's another way that others can help in the search and the United States certainly is.

WHITFIELD: Be Bob, in the meantime, you know, I spoke with a New Zealand air commodore last night who said that the biggest challenge really is complacency. When you have some many of these search teams involve and whether it is the aerial searches or even looked at the underwater searches. And is it your view and until these additional assets are in place, that is going to be the largest, the biggest obstacle for many of these search teams, complacency.

FRANCIS: Well, I think that's obviously always a potential issue. But from the sound of what we see and have seen up until now, the motivation of these folks is doesn't seem to be veering towards complacency. But it becomes a question of proper management and proper leadership. That's what these folks do for -- do for a living. And I would -- I would think complacency would be a long way from where we are now.

WHITFIELD: And Rob, when it comes down to reviewing a lot of the data that has been collected or even data that continues to change, whether it be, you know, the current data that they are seeing in the ocean, at what point will some third parties perhaps be involved, maybe all of this can't be done on the ships that are right there, but maybe you have to second, you know, check this a second time or a third time with some other assets that are involved or perhaps even on land. At what stage and at what point will that happen?

MCCALLUM: Well, for the actual search itself, I mean, you see the continuation of the aerial search for just the smallest trace of debris. You know, that's a very good first step because that brings physical, tangible evidence that we're in the right place.

But the only other thing that we can do now is to go down and to start scanning the sea floor around those pinger locations because that's the only other bit of evidence that we've got. Once we do that, then we'll move into the next phase, which is to work out whether there is something nearby the pingers, whether the pinger locations have verified or whether we need to go to a much wider area around the pingers.

WHITFIELD: All right, Rob McCallum, Captain Van Gurley, Mary Schiavo, and Bob Francis, thanks to all of you. Appreciate that.

Next, a man who has been miles underwater sharing his perspective on the search. Hear why filmmaker and deep Sea Explorer James Cameron says it is not just the ocean depth that's the problem.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: One big challenge in searching for flight 370 is the deep ocean. One person with some insight is underwater explorer and Academy award-winning director James Cameron. He spoke with CNN's Jake Tapper.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES CAMERON, UNDERWATER EXPLORER: Three miles down you've got a tremendous amount of pressure. That's the sort of depth of the Titanic wreck and Bismarck wreck. So, any vehicle that can go down there and operate has to be build to withstand these incredible external forces. Plus, you have three miles of water that you have to communicate through and radio frequencies won't go through water. So you are communicating by sound primarily or maybe by fiber optic cable. It is a very, very difficult regime to work it.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: And one thing this story does tell is something that you talk about all the time, which is how little we know about our own oceans. Do you think that society should be devoting more energy and resources to studying deep sea topography?

CAMERON: I think we need to know more about the oceans in kind of realtime. We need to know more about what is happening in the water column and that he feeds in to, you know, climate modeling and all of the other stuff.

The ocean is a vast volume. You know, the land, you know, we can see the surface of the land from orbit. You can Google just about any spot on the surface of the land. But the ocean has depth, you know, three miles down to seven miles. And so, it's this huge volume full of life, full of, you know, chemical interactions and that's where the carbon is going, that is where the temperature is being controlled, all of those things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: You can see more of Jake Tapper's interview with James Cameron at CNN.com.

All right, later this month, the president of the United States plans to visit Malaysia. He was hoping to point to Malaysia as the mostly Muslim nation that is ramping up economically, opening up politically, kind of give them a little bit of shout out. Well, that's tougher now. Whether they have found the plane or not by the time the president arrives.

Here is CNN's Joe Johns.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Last October, U.S. President Barack Obama postponed a trip to Malaysia due to Washington government's shutdown crisis. Now, as he prepares for his rescheduled visit later this month, Malaysia is reeling from a crisis of its own. The missing airliner, MH-370, has thrust this mostly Muslim country into the international spotlight and put the party that has controlled the government for decades suddenly on the defensive. The forces of mass media carefully controlled in the past are beginning to assert themselves in new ways.

Its rush hour in Kuala Lumpur and even dry talk radio at this English language station is filled with chatter about the missing plane.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is time back here with Caroline and Ezra (ph). We want you on the evening editions. We're asking you one month since the disappearance of flight MH-370, what kind of impact do you feel it has had on Malaysia's image?

JOHNS: It has been going on for weeks. Callers are concern about the government sometimes contradictory messages. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The country needs to have more cohesive story (INAUDIBLE).

JOHNS: The constant drumbeat on radio and television and newspapers and on social media is starting to take its toll on the government.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think they have a bad perception of the people in charge of this whole incident.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People have been outraged. People have been upset. There's a lot of empathy and sympathy and frustration.

JOHNS: A recent poll showed that 50 percent of respondents are dissatisfied with the way the government has handled the missing plane crisis, 43 percent said they approved that the government's conduct and seven percent were not sure.

IBRAHIM SUFFIAN, DIRECTOR: It's a government that over the many years has been respected by the people. And I think this crisis has brought about a kind of realization of the limits of the capacity of the Malaysian government in handling this particular crisis.

JOHNS: While the polling numbers track with general political attitudes in Malaysia's urban area, and even though the majority the intensely focused attention to the government sometimes uneven handling of the crisis is still a wake-up call for the country's leaders who point out that none of this is easy.

HUSSEIN: The search operations have been difficult, challenging, and complex. But in spite of all this, our determination remains undiminished.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Malaysian public now demands more of our leaders, most of them in past five, ten year ago.

JOHNS: Joe Johns, CNN, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And somewhere within the deep ocean possibly those black boxes.

Next, how black boxes have helped solve other airline tragedies?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The investigation into flight 370 surrounds those black boxes that we have been talking about. The small devices are critical to answering the question of what happened and why. They've been crucial in solving other recent airline tragedies.

Here's CNN's Randi Kaye.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In July 2000, Air France flight 4590, that Concorde jet takes off from Paris. This terrifying video shows the plane on fire as it leaves the runway.

The control tower radios the pilots. 4590, you have strong flames behind you. Moments later, they crash into a hotel killing all 109 on board. The plane's black boxes are recovered.

FRANCOIS BROUSSE, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, AIR FRANCE (through translator): Both boxes are in good state to be decrypted. We have to understand what the data mean.

KAYE: The cockpit voice recorder unveils the pilot's last word. The co-pilot tells the captain to land at nearby airport. His response, too late. The black boxes also reveal a catastrophic fire in one engine and a loss of power in another.

Air France flight 447 caught in a powerful storm and rolling to the right. It is June 2009, a flight from Rio to Paris, 228 people on board. The plane begins to fall 10,000 per minute and crashes into the Atlantic belly first killing everyone.

PAUL-LOUIS ARSLANIAN, FORMER HEAD, FRENCH ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION AGENCY: This is a big deal. This is what we are looking for in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

KAYE: Two years later they found the black boxes deep in the ocean. Before the recovery, it was thought the plane's speed sensors were to blame. But the black boxes revealed the pilots were at fault.

A transcript from the cockpit voice recorder shows confusion in the cockpit. We still have engines. What the hell is happening, one copilot asks. Another copilot says, climb, climb, climb, and then the captain, no, no, no. Don't climb.

In February, 2009, Colgan Air flight 3407 also stalls and disappears off radar.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Colgan 2407, Buffalo.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Colgan 3407, now approaching.

Delta 1998, look off your right side about five miles for a dash eight, should be 2300. Do you see anything there?

KAYE: The plane's speed drops dangerously low. It begins to dive in heavy snow. The pilot overreacts, a fatal mistake.

WALLY WARNER, CHIEF, PILOT, BOMBARDIER: Obviously, the initial reaction to the stall warning was incorrect.

KAYE: The jet crashes into a home in Buffalo, New York, killing all 49 people on board.

MARGIE BRANDOUIST, PLANE CRASH VICTIM'S SISTER: We put our lives in the hands of people that we assume that the FAA is -- and the airlines are properly training.

KAYE: Both black boxes, the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder divulge panic in the cockpit as the plane tumbles toward the ground.

Pilot Marvin Renzo (ph) blurs out, Jesus Christ, and we're down. First officer Rebecca Shaw starts to say something but is cut short by her own scream.

The black also boxes reveal the airplane pitched and rolled. And this horrifying fact, the pilots were joking around as the plane slowed in the final minutes before tragedy struck.

Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And coming up at the top of the hour, we will bring you the very latest on the search for flight 370, the hunt for that fading signal is getting even more intense and the search for debris is expanding, as well. We' we'll go live to Australia for the latest.

All right, we know you missed it and the good news is, you won't have to wait much longer. The show is back. Joining us now for a preview of what we're going to see this season of "Parts Unknown," Anthony Bourdain.

All right, Anthony. Good to see you. Your first stop this season, Punjab, India. We know the food is a hit. We are talking about amazing spices at the same time and is it a region that can be a little spicy, too, right along the Pakistan border. So, hat was this journey like?

ANTHONY BOURDAIN, CNN HOST, PARTS UNKNOWN: Well, the food was, indeed, spectacular. The colors in the Punjab are extraordinary. It was a very, very beautiful part of an already very beautiful country. And we looked at, you know, in the course of just eating and looking into the far away past, the present kept intruding and it is a fact, a very contentious part of the world. The relations between, you know, along that border had really informed a lot of the problems in the entire region. We see -- all of us see it, feel it, you know hear it, live with it every day to a great extent. And we looked at that a little bit, you know, right where it mattered.

WHITFIELD: So there was a free community vegetarian restaurant there, as well. Describe that experience.

BOURDAIN: Well, it's the golden temple and (INAUDIBLE), it is essentially -- it's the holiest spot in the Sikh religion. And at this temple, every day for I think about a century, quite some time, many, many decades, volunteers have been cooking tens of thousands of free meals for any and all of any faith and of any income level to come and eat and enjoy a simple meal.

WHITFIELD: All right. Sounds so great. Don't miss the season premiere of "Parts Unknown" tonight 9:00 right here on CNN.

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