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Search for Flight 370; Bluefin-21 Technology; Russian Fighter Jet Buzzes U.S. Warship; Co-Pilot's Phone Detected as Jet Vanished; Violent Weather Rips across U.S.

Aired April 15, 2014 - 09:30   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for being with me.

Mission number two for the unmanned submarine searching the depth of the Indian Ocean will begin once again as the weather clears up. But like all the other searches for Flight 370 and its passengers, the first trip for the Bluefin turns up nothing. The submarines seven and a half hour mission Monday found no objects of interest, plus the mission ended early when the submarine passed its maximum operating depth.

Now, there was that oil slick found in the water by Ocean Shield over the weekend. Remember? Well just now, a sample from that oil spill is on another ship and it's heading back to Australia for tests.

For more on all of these developments, Erin McLaughlin is in Perth, Australia.

Good morning, Erin.

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Well, as far as we know, the Bluefin-21 still aboard the Australian vessel the Ocean Shield. Bad weather preventing it from being put back into the water. We're also getting some new details about that first mission that was cut short. It lasted about seven and a half of the planned 20 hours. It only covered around 29 percent of the planned 15 square mile area.

Now, that 15 square mile area is significant. It's the area that officials have identified as the most probable place to find the black box based on the data analysis from those pinger detections earlier. Now, we understand that technicians aboard the Ocean Shield have looked at the limited amount of data that the Bluefin-21 was able to capture during its time underneath the water, and no significant objects have been found.

Officials here in Australia have long said, in is going to be a painstaking and meticulous process. Nothing that happens under water is easy, especially water this deep. So it could take some time, Carol.

COSTELLO: Tell us more about the oil slick. They finally collected some samples. How long will it take before they figure anything out? MCLAUGHLIN: That's right, they collected about two liters worth of samples of that oil slick. We understand that it's currently on an Australian military ship making its way to the western coast of Australia. It will be brought to a military base by a chopper before being jetted out here to Perth for more detailed analysis. We understand that it should arrive here in Perth on Wednesday. How long it will take them to analyze that, well, officials here are not saying, Carol.

COSTELLO: Erin McLaughlin reporting live from Perth, Australia.

Despite the Bluefin's early return, it is the best hope to find Flight 370, and it is an amazing piece of technology. Brian Todd is in Washington with more on the Bluefin.

Good morning, Brian.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

This is a very sophisticated underwater drone essentially. We got access to the operators who run the vehicle. They acknowledge this is a difficult job for the Bluefin, but they say it's up to the task.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): Its manufacturer calls it the Bluefin-21. It's technically known as an autonomous underwater vehicle, or AUV. But for the people who run it, it's -

CHRIS MOORE, AUV PROGRAM MANAGER, PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL: Basically a smart torpedo.

TODD: And, right now, it may be the best remaining hope for finding wreckage from Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. We were given exclusive access behind the scenes at Phoenix International, the company which runs the Bluefin, to see just how it works.

While it may launch from the side of the search ship, the Bluefin is actually operated by remote control with help from a satellite. Its job, not to listen for pings, but to map the ocean floor and look for debris. To do that, it can use two different payloads, which have to be swapped out.

MOORE: This particular payload section is the acoustic section.

TODD: First, the Bluefin uses side scan sonar and a multi beam echo sounder, detectors that bounce sound waves off objects on the ocean floor that aren't natural. If those are picked up, the Bluefin can then be brought to the surface. The sonar technology gets taken out and high-tech cameras are put in.

MOORE: It's a high definition black and white camera capable of three frames per second.

TODD: Together, they can create a detailed mosaic of the ocean floor. The operators are confident if wreckage from Flight 370 is down there, the Bluefin will find it.

MOORE: The technology on the AUV is good enough that we can resolve something that is as small as a microwave, perhaps even smaller.

TODD: But it's not an easy or fast process. It takes the vehicle two hours to dive to the bottom, 16 hours to search about a 15-square-mile section of the ocean floor, and two more hours to return to the surface. Then it takes another four hours to download and analyze the data collected. That means just one mission of the Bluefin-21 takes at least 24 hours to complete. Meaning the search could drag on.

DAVID KELLY, PRES. & CEO, BLUEFIN ROBOTICS: Given the size of the search area, that could take six, eight weeks or - it's a weeks and months type of problem to cover that amount of area.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: But as we've been reporting, the Bluefin has also suffered a setback in its first deployment. It had to abort that first mission. A source tells us the Bluefin spent only about seven and a half hours in the water instead of the 24 hours it was supposed to be deployed. That meant only about three and a half hours of actual searching near the bottom, far less than expected.

Carol.

COSTELLO: Which is frustrating, I'm sure, for searchers.

TODD: Absolutely.

COSTELLO: Does this Bluefin just automatically go back up when it hits a certain depth that's been programmed in?

TODD: You pretty much have it there, exact, Carol. An official from Phoenix International, which owns and operates the Bluefin, told us it's designed to abort when the depth parameter is exceed. It's calibrated before each mission to fly at a pre-established altitude above the ocean floor. If it drops below that, the safety mechanisms will automatically kick in and return the vehicle to the surface. This official at Phoenix International believes that's what happened in that first deployment.

COSTELLO: All right, Brian Todd reporting live from Washington. And one of the problems, and Tom Foreman is in Washington to explain this for us, is the searchers on the surface of the ocean don't know exactly what's underneath, so they can't really program this Bluefin accurately all the time, right?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Carol. You know, I was just listening to what Brian had to say there and what you said here. Here's the thing, we keep talking about all of this from a distance -- we're not out on the ocean out there -- as if this is scientific and easy. It is scientific, it is not easy, in part because we know so little about this. The general area we're talking about, the most shallow part is like a mile and a half. The deeper parts are somewhere more than three miles, but we don't know how much deeper. And where this thing may be located, these pingers down here, if they can find it, well, maybe that's somewhere in two miles, maybe it's at three miles, maybe it's deeper. We don't know.

We also don't know what the bottom is like, Carol. We don't know how many ridges and hills are down here. We don't know if there is silt down there, how deep the silt is and if things are buried in that silt. There are tremendous problems down here, Carol, and when you take even a highly technical piece of equipment and put it into an environment you don't know much about, it gets really difficult.

And when you talk about this depth, remember, the maximum depth for this device, this underwater robot, is around this three-mile level. What that means is you're already at the limits of its performance, which means there are always questions about this. This is a great piece of equipment, but it has been used much, much, much more up in shallower areas, like coastal edges, coastal embankments, that sort of thing. It's not been used nearly as much at these very deep depths. Not that it can't do, but it's the edge of performance, Carol.

COSTELLO: Understand. Tome Foreman, many thanks.

Coming up in the NEWSROOM, just days after a Russian fighter jets buzzed a U.S. destroyer, Vladimir Putin calls on the United States to help prevent the use of force in Ukraine. CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr following all the developments for us.

Good morning, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

So is the Russian military really taking on the U.S. Navy? Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Certainly sounds like something out of the Cold War. A Russian fighter jet makes a dozen close-range passes over a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Black Sea. In other words, the Russians buzzed a U.S. warship repeatedly. The incident happened on Saturday. It's being described by the Pentagon as provocative and unprofessional. Let's bring in our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr to tell us more.

What message did the Russians want to send to the United States?

STARR: Well, you know, provocative and unprofessional might be just the most kind words that the Pentagon has to describe publicly what happened on Saturday. They think that Moscow is sending them a message of harassment, to put it politely. You know, buzzing the USS Donald Cook, which was in international waters in the Black Sea conducting operations well announced publicly, and this Russian SU-24 fencer fighter jet makes a dozen low passes around the ship over a 90-minute period.

It was not armed. It didn't have missiles under the wings. But, still, this is not -- you know, this is so far from standard practice at sea. And there was also a Russian frigate, another small Russian ship, shadowing the Donald Cook. So the Navy sees it as harassment. They see it as a political message from Moscow with tensions so high in that region over Ukraine.

But the fact is, the bottom line is, the Navy says, the Pentagon says it will continue to conduct the exercises and the training that it's conducting and it really wants the Russians to back off.

Carol.

COSTELLO: Now, we know that Russian jet was unarmed, right? And the folks aboard the USS Donald Cook knew, too. I'm just thinking what that would be like to have a Russian jet flying, what, at 500 feet over my ship for 90 minutes?

STARR: Well that's -- yes that's a really good point there. I mean unarmed, there were no missiles under the wings but in these low passes, you're absolutely right. It flew about 500 feet off the water and about 1,000 yards to the side. So, look, the ship knew, you know -- this airplane was not about to attack it, but this just isn't good seamanship. It's not good combat air practice. It's not the way military operations are conducted by responsible nations.

And that's the point the U.S. is making. You want to send a message, do it diplomatically. But you know you get this close between military forces, accidents can happen. Things can happen. No one wants that, and this is not the kind of -- of venue, if you will, to send a political message. Don't mess with warships. Don't mess with fighter jets. You know? Act the way you're supposed to act at sea.

That's really what the Pentagon is saying back to the Russians and that is why they are talking about it so much. They want Moscow to hear them.

COSTELLO: Barbara Starr, reporting live from the Pentagon, thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, hopes for finding Flight 370 now riding on this underwater search vehicle. Randy Kaye heads out on the water to see how the Bluefin 21 does its job. That's just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: We are learning new details about what was going on inside the cockpit of Flight 370 about the time it vanished from radar. A U.S. official says the co-pilot's cell phone made contact with a cell tower in Malaysia.

CNN's Pamela Brown looks into this latest twist to the investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Sources tell CNN First Officer Fariq Hamid's cell phone was on and searching for service roughly half an hour after all of Flight 370's communications mysteriously shut off, information CNN has learned that Malaysian authorities first gave to the U.S. a while ago. DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: It would be very rare, in my opinion, to have someone with a cell phone on in the cockpit. It's never supposed to be on at all as part of every checklist of every airline I'm familiar with.

BROWN: Sources say Malaysian authorities have told the U.S. that a cell near Paning (ph), Malaysia, roughly 250 miles from where the plane turned around, picked up a roaming signal from Hamid's cell phone, suggesting his was the only phone turned on after the flight's transponder turned off.

One U.S. official told CNN quote "He could have tried to do something with the phone. We don't know."

SOUCIE: You know the interesting thing about that is that no other phone connected to it. It was just specifically his cell phone.

BROWN: While U.S. and Malaysian officials caution there is no evidence the first officer tried to make a call with the phone, on Sunday, Malaysia's transport minister did not deny the possibility.

HISHAMMUDDIN HUSSEIN, MALAYSIAN ACTING TRANSPORTATION MINISTER: As far as I know, no. But like I said that would be in the realm of the police. And the other international agencies and when the time comes, they will be revealed. But I do not want to speculate on that at the moment.

BROWN: When the plane first went missing, authorities said millions of cell phone records were searched looking for evidence calls had been made from the plane but turned up nothing. Still, if Hamid's cell phone connected with the tower, it only adds to the evidence that the plane turned westward from its planned path and that the plane was likely flying low enough for a cell tower to pick up the phone's signal.

SOUCIE: So, it does make me think that perhaps it was a little lower than the 35,000 feet that we speculated because of the fact it did make the connection. Typically, there's not even time to do that but they were still high enough in which it just made -- just made the connection and there was no speaking or no long period of time.

BROWN (on camera): And what this information doesn't tell us, according to U.S. officials, is a motive and who was alive and who was not at the time the cell tower detected the co-pilot's phone.

Also worth pointing out, the aircraft never had a cell phone system installed and again, I want to reiterate, this information was shared by the Malaysians with U.S. investigators and the Malaysians could be privy to other information that we don't know about.

Pamela Brown, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, violent weather ripping across the country. COSTELLO: A nasty hailstorm to topple trees from heavy winds, strong winds, I should say. A look at where the system is heading next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Opening bell rang on Wall Street just about 27 minutes ago. Stocks getting a boost this morning thanks to Coca-Cola. The company announced a nearly three percent gain in its earnings. As you can see, the Dow is up just about 84 points.

Ringing the opening bell this morning, executives from the German company, Voxeljet which makes large format 3D printers and parts.

The calendar says it's spring but some parts of the country, it's snowing. Check out what people are waking up to in Dayton, Ohio. Sure it's not a ton of snow but it's not something you would expect to see in April.

Yes decided to throw in hail, too. The massive storm system is moving across the country, it also dumped heavy rain and hail in Austin, Texas. Golf ball-sized hail was reported with wind gusts up to 40 miles per hour. In Sparta, Michigan, violent winds knocked over trees and took down power lines, cutting power to thousands.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought this was quite a storm. First, I saw winds going back and forth every direction. Then I saw hail going exactly dead south in a straight line. You go around, there's garages knocked over flat over there, windows blown out all over the place. It's nuts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: It is nuts Indra Petersons. March already went out like a lion.

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I mean you're exactly explaining what is going on, we're talking about two completely different types of air masses out there and you are talking about the snow, right and then you have all this warm air down to the south. That is the reason we have the severe weather threats out there, cold front, same guy, still pushing further across today.

So today the severe weather threat is still out there, it looks like from Norfolk, down about Wilmington and then a separate area. So if you're just hanging out toward southern Florida, northern parts of Florida around Jacksonville and Gainesville, you do have the risk again for severe thunderstorms, straight line winds, you saw a lot of damage from straight line winds yesterday and even hail.

That's just one side of the equation. You mentioned the snow. Look at this, so easy to see with the current temperatures. Look how warm it is here close to the Eastern Seaboard, look right behind the cold front, look at these 20s and the 30s. And yes, the snow that is currently already falling, that is the story that's up front. It continues to push off to the east, the cold air filling in. A lot of rain still throughout the daytime, it's warmer throughout the day, right?

But as the temperatures drop overnight tonight, we are going to see more of this snow filling in, even in places like New York City, yes, chances are you are asleep, 2:00, 3:00 in the morning there in New York City, but there could be some flurries out there overnight tonight. What a difference in the beautiful temperatures of 70s we just saw a few days ago.

That cold air overnight goes all the way down by you, Carol, down to the southeast. Those temperatures are expected to drop, which means, there you go (inaudible) snow about two inches, Albany, Burlington, another three inches. Yes -- hard to believe. Even some heavy rain totals as we're looking at rain throughout the day even through the overnight hours into the northeast, clearing out right around cleaning time tomorrow.

But here comes the big story. It's all about the temperature drop, it was gorgeous. Notice the Eastern Seaboard trying to hang on to some of these warm temperaturs as all that cold air, below average temperatures, fill in (ph) a good 20 degrees below average. Keep in mind, just two days ago, we were seeing 15 degrees above average. You take that, you add it together, we're talking about 30 degrees of a temperature in just about 48 hours for the Northeast. No one is happy now, Carol.

COSTELLO: No, but tomorrow, the next day, they'll be better. Indra Petersons, many thanks.

A treat for skywatchers last night, a blood moon that came as a result of a total lunar eclipse.