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Search for MH370 Moves Deep Under Water; Racing to Find Black Box of the Future; Bubba Wins Second Masters

Aired April 14, 2014 - 10:30   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: The search for missing Flight 370 has now moved 13,000 feet under water. This Bluefin-21 submarine will take nearly six times as long to search as the towed pinger locator did. Each mission will take 24 hours to complete. Today the submarine will cover an area about the size of 7,200 football fields which sounds like a lot but really it isn't unfortunately.

Tom Foreman is live in Washington with a look at this underwater search area. Good morning, Tom.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. You know we've been saying all along that once this goes under water it's going to be much slower and more meticulous and will cover a lot less ground. We had the towed pinger which was able to go at a fairly good speed that's what produced the basic information. They've dropped sonar buoys out there; they haven't really produced anything of any real value yet.

And now we're looking at the Bluefin. Yes, this thing has to crawl along here. And it's operating at a depth, Carol, that is much lower than what is typically used for this. It can reach down to two and a half miles and it's going to be right at that range here where it's operating.

Typically you would see these a lot more on like coastal shelf areas, Carol, where it would be down 1,000 feet, you know something like that. And in that circumstance they may be able to work a fleet of them, several working at once together, although that's rarely attempted. But at this level it's one they get it down to this limit of its performance and see if they can get this mapping under way to get a very clear picture of the ocean floor if it all goes properly, Carol.

COSTELLO: If it all goes properly. And just to reiterate it goes, what, it takes two hours just to get down two and a half miles under water, right?

FOREMAN: Yes it does.

COSTELLO: And then it will be down there for like 16 hours or something like that?

FOREMAN: Right moves back up.

COSTELLO: Two hours to go back up to the surface and then what happens?

FOREMAN: And then like four hours to unload all the information from it. But one of the things I really want to stress here because it's very important, this depends entirely on this, the surface of the water. I was talking to somebody who is very experienced with these and he was telling me, he said, look, if you do not have the right circumstances up here on top of the water, this is an inherently hazardous job.

So off-loading one of this into the water from a ship is difficult to make sure you don't damage the instrument, to make sure you don't damage the ship, to make sure you don't hurt anybody on board saying you're going to bring it back up. And these are notoriously rough seas up here. That can pose a big challenge to anything happening down here -- Carol.

COSTELLO: OK well we know that submarine is down there right now so we'll see if we have anything tomorrow. Tom Foreman many thanks.

The Bluefin-21 submersible can travel some two and a half miles below the ocean surface, I told you that, around the depths that those electronic signals were recorded by "Ocean Shield" nearly a week ago. To put this in perspective though, that is deeper than the location of the Titanic wreckage.

My next guest led an expedition to the Titanic. He's an ocean search specialist, Rob McCallum. He's joined us before. Rob welcome back.

ROB MCCALLUM, OCEAN SEARCH SPECIALIST: Good morning.

COSTELLO: So you've done some really fascinating stuff. You actually called your dive to the Titanic the technical equivalent of a Space Walk. Why?

MCCALLUM: Because we know so little about inner space, the deeper part of the world's oceans. You know we've met so very little of it, we've visited even less of it. And so it is equivalent -- the equivalent of you know exploring the inner space of our own planet.

COSTELLO: It seems to move along so slowly. Is it -- is it frustrating?

MCCALLUM: You know it is frustrating. You know, sonar is deployed in one of two ways: either by an AUV or by a towed slid. AUVs are very good in some applications for using, you know, getting high resolution imagery of very small areas but a towed array would produce perhaps 100 miles a day rather than the 15 we're expecting from the Bluefin.

COSTELLO: Right you traveled down to see the Titanic in something different than the Bluefin-21. James -- the director, James Cameron, he made 12 trips to the wreckage in a different kind of submarine that was able to take pictures.

So why aren't they using this kind of technology to search for Flight 370? MCCALLUM: Well, the first job in the underwater phase of this search is to scan the ocean floor. And to do that you use sonar or sound acoustics to provide imagery of the sea floor. And then once you've gained imagery of the sea floor you can use that to actually locate the wreck. You would see it clearly outlined on the sea floor. Then you can deploy either a robot or a manned vehicle to go down and take pictures and investigate.

COSTELLO: And this kind of technology we're looking at right now can go down to extraordinary depths. The Bluefin, I'm not so sure. Can it -- is it possible for that submersible to go down three miles if need be?

MCCALLUM: You know that's a question for the manufacturer and I know that he's looking at that because of course Bluefin is operating at the very edge of her operating range, but there are some engineering factors allowances in there and they may be able to extend that. 4,500 meters is really only the sort of middle component of the world that we typically operate. And you know our average depth is around anywhere between 4,000 and 6,000 meters so down to 20,000 feet.

COSTELLO: Rob McCallum many thanks.

MCCALLUM: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, imagine searching for a laptop computer in a place the size of Manhattan. Now imagine doing it in total darkness. That's the kind of challenge search crews are up against as they scour the deep sea for that plane.

We'll talk more about that when I come back.

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COSTELLO: The answer to what happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 could be miles under the water. Officials believe those four pings detected by search crews last week could be from one of the plane's black boxes more than 13,000 feet deep.

To put it into perspective, you would pass the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower and the tallest building in the world on the way down, a journey well worth it though because the kind of information locked in those black boxes could give us all sorts of answers.

Let's bring in Kevin Balys he's the owner of KGB Aviation Solutions LLC. Welcome, Kevin.

KEVIN BALYS, OWNER, KGB AVIATION SOLUTIONS LLC: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Thank you for being here. Your company provides reports from the black boxes. How does that process work?

BALYS: Well we basically get the data from the flight data recorders with the equipment that we have through the aircraft side. Then we download the data from the flight recorders and perform the reasonableness test. It's really the first step in this process. And it's important because it's verifying that we have a good baseline that the aircraft is recording the -- the flight recorder is recording information from the aircraft properly. And then in a case like this, we know that we have a high degree of certainty that the data being recorded is reasonable.

COSTELLO: So there are two black boxes. Tell us what information comes out of each.

BALYS: Sure. There's two black boxes -- the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder. The cockpit voice recorder records the audio. There's four channels, one channel for each of the pilot's headset. And then in this case a very important area mic. The area mic will be crucial because it will allow investigators to hear what was being said in the cockpit when there was no communication going back and forth between the towers which we know there was a minimal amount of communication going back.

The other recorder is a flight data recorder. That records pilot's inputs, the surface on the aircraft, the aircraft attitudes and engine parameters, altitude air speed heading, a whole host of warning systems. That gives us more technical insight as what -- what was happening on the aircraft and the condition of the aircraft while it was flying.

COSTELLO: So these black boxes could be miles underneath the water and they've been there for a month now. Is it possible for them to become so damaged you can't recover any information?

BALYS: Well, the recorders will not function again. They will never fly again, but the data on the recorders are stored on memory chips. Those memory chips can be pulled off that recorder and put on a functioning system in the lab and then the data retrieved.

I'm sure they're going to go through quite a bit of pre-testing and drying out and there are precautionary measures to make sure they're not damaging anything when they apply power to the chips.

COSTELLO: So the information is just a tiny little chip in the back of the black box? Is that how --

BALYS: Sure. Yes, the whole intent of the black box is to save the data. The box will not survive other than the data, the memory chips. Back when they first came out they were on tape. That's primarily the reason why you see when they pull recorders from oceans or water they keep them submerged in tape. That's back from the days when they needed to keep that tape moist before they got it to the lab and started the drying out process.

Now they're solid chips. So I've heard of cases where these chips have actually -- became so hot in a slow burn fire that the solder melted off the chips. The chips fell in a pile to the bottom of the canister and the engineers and the manufacturers of the recorders were able to take those chips, put them back into a bread board and get that data without a problem.

COSTELLO: That's amazing. Kevin Balys, thanks so much for your insight. I appreciate it.

BALYS: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: You're welcome.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, new and improved patents for black boxes but the industry seems to be dragging its feet in embracing this new technology. Zain Asher is looking into that.

ZAIN ASHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Yes, since Air France 447 crashed, hundreds of engineers and inventors have been racing to find the black box of the future. I'll have that story coming up.

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COSTELLO: The Dow is doing a happy dance this morning but for how long? Let's head to the New York Stock Exchange and check in with Alison Kosik. Good morning.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it was red arrows most of last week -- Carol. You know, that losing streak that the Dow had five of the past seven sessions, did you know the Dow lost almost 400 points last week. But yes, we are seeing momentum today that's partly thanks to a better than expected report on retail sales in March.

That's good news because it showed that as the weather got warmer, people got out and spent money. That's good for businesses and the economy and it's partly thanks to some solid earnings from Citigroup reporting its first quarter earnings. It beat expectations on both profit and revenue in the first quarter.

We're seeing green arrows today -- the Dow is up 106 points. We'll see if those green arrows can last, certainly a better Monday than we had all week last week -- Carol

COSTELLO: Good enough. Alison Kosik, thanks so much.

The search for Flight 370 is not the first one where investigators have spent significant time trying to locate black boxes. It took nearly two years after Air France Flight 447 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean before crews were able to bring up the plane's recorders. That 2009 crash sparked a surge of patents for finding lost planes. What happened to all those patents?

CNN's Zain Asher joins us with a look at some of the technology. Good morning.

ASHER: Hi Carol -- yes. So basically what you're seeing is that since Air France 447 crashed you're seeing hundreds of new inventors and engineers some of them from massive corporations like L3 and Honeywell, others quote unquote mom and pop inventors basically trying to create a way for black boxes to be retrieved faster.

Let me give you an example. Honeywell engineers -- Honeywell has actually created a way of capturing the audio in the cockpit and converting the audio into text using voice recognition software. And then if there was some kind of an emergency on board an aircraft or a warning it would send the last let's say 15 or 20 minutes of transcript to computers on the ground.

That way, even though the cockpit voice recorder might take months or years to retrieve investigators would at least have something to work with in the meantime.

Another one that I found simply interesting was that given that Air France 447 crashed partly because of pilot error, one inventor was actually motivated to create an app that would allow pilots to review their performance, review and monitor their performance after every single flight. You can see the video right there.

So for example, the app would actually draw on different parameters like the speed, the altitude, the acceleration of the aircraft and also outside factors like the weather, turbulence, wind speed and as soon as the pilot lands it would send a report straight to their phone. That way they can review their performance.

And lastly, one that I did find particularly interesting as well was engineers at L3 who had created a way for lab technicians on the ground to wirelessly monitor the health of the batteries located in the black box pingers.

So, yes again, a lot of inventors and engineers rushing to create, quote, unquote, "the black box of the future", especially motivated after Air France 447.

COSTELLO: Is any of this just being used in the airline industry?

ASHER: So here's the thing. Cost is certainly a factor with this. I mean two of them are patents. The (inaudible) the actually app has created but the other two are just right now. Patents take a long time to be approved. So one of the inventors I spoke to last night told me that his patent actually took two and a half years to get approved, but also cost is certainly a factor as well -- Carol.

I mean the airline industry already has razor-thin profit margins and so they're not going to be motivated to make changes unless it's mandated by the government -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Zain Asher, thanks so much. I'll be right back.

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COSTELLO: Bubba Watson has already got one at home but honestly what golfer could not use another green jacket? It's a perfect the fit for the native Baghdad, Florida. Watson wins his second Masters title in three years and he does it in fine fashion.

Rachel Nichols has more for us. Good morning -- Rachel.

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN SPORTS: Good morning.

You know, this is the first Masters weekend with no Tiger Woods and no Phil Mickelson in 20 years. But anyone who thought it was going to be boring didn't have to worry because they had Bubba Watson. He's a country kid who charms fans wherever he goes. He plays what his caddy likes to call, quote, "freak golf" -- all these long shots and crazy types of putts to get him to this position so he's entertaining on the course. And, hey, he's a University of Georgia guy so he's popular down in Augusta.

A very sweet moment at the end with his son Caleb -- you know, Bubba has been open about the fact that he and his wife went through a four- year struggle to adopt Caleb. Caleb was only a month old when he won a couple of years. So he wasn't, of course, able to be there as a baby.

The idea that he was able to toddle onto that course, this child that they wanted so badly was able to be there with them -- what a sweet and special moment.

COSTELLO: That's a cutie.

Another moment I especially loved was how Bubba Watson and his family celebrated after the big win.

NICHOLS: Come on, you know, you are going to do something as fancy and official as the Masters, you're going to have to go to Waffle House, right? Bubba tweeted this amazing photo of himself and look, it is in keeping with who he is. I mentioned he's a country kid. He said he always loves that he's on these super fancy country club courses and a guy named Bubba as he said is walking around them.

He did not come from a silver spoon upbringing. His mom had to work two jobs to pay for his golf lessons. He has never forgotten where he came from so hey and he celebrated with Hash Browns at Waffle House at 1:00 in the morning. And the best part Carol was a couple of years ago we have Phil Mickelson going to Krispy Kreme to celebrate his win.

So now you have a choice as a fan. Are you a Waffle House person? Are you a Krispy Kreme person? That's how you can decide who your favorite golfer is.

COSTELLO: OK. So I'm going to ask you a tough question to wrap it up. I only have 30 seconds. But is the Tiger Woods era over?

NICHOLS: You know what -- I don't think we're going to see as dominant a Tiger Woods ever again as we once had but you just want him to get through these injuries. If he does, you certainly hope that he can win at least one more major, maybe a couple. He would like four more to break Jack Nicklaus's record. We'll have to see, he's 38 years old.

COSTELLO: Yes. Rachel Nichols -- thanks as always.

And thank you for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

"@THIS HOUR" With Berman and Michaela starts now.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN HOST: The listening ends, under water scanning begins. An unmanned submarine is now scouring the sea floor marking a new phase in the hunt for flight 370.