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Thirty Six Dead, 266 Missing in Ferry Sinking; Ukraine Deal Meets Defiance on the Ground; Bluefin-21 Completes Sixth Ocean Scan; Is Russia Trying to Control Ukraine Pro-Russian Forces; South Korea Sunken Ferry Takes Toll on Families; If MH-370 Found, Most Advanced Underwater Search Vehicle Joins Hunt; Bluefin Finds No Evidence Yet of MH-370

Aired April 19, 2014 - 17:00   ET

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

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Sciutto in today for Don Lemon. And right now we're tracking four major stories happening all over the world. We begin with some breaking news about Ukraine. We're learning that the U.S. plans to conduct military exercises in Eastern Europe. This just days into a deal between Russia, Ukraine, and the west. We're going to have more details on that in just a moment.

Now, in Yemen what could be a big hit on al-Qaeda. A drone strike reportedly kills at least ten suspected al-Qaeda militants. A source tells CNN three well-known operatives are among the dead.

The hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is entering a crucial phase. The Bluefin 21 underwater drone will finish scanning the search zone within five to seven days. After that the entire search operation could need a reboot. You're going to hear about the options being considered coming up.

And in South Korea, the captain of the ferry that sank this week has been charged with violating the seaman's law, that's the widely recognized principle that the captain is the last person to leave a sinking ship. But the ferry captain didn't do that. He was among the first 174 people rescued on Wednesday while nearly 300 people mostly high school teenagers were left behind. Two crew members also face criminal charges in the disaster. The captain tried to explain why he was not at the helm at the time of the accident.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Where were you at the time of the sinking?

LEE JUN-SEOK, FERRY CAPTAIN: It is not that I was away at the time of the sinking. I had given the route instructions and while I briefly went to the bedroom to use the bathroom, and it happened that way.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: There is a story that you were drinking at the time, were you? You weren't.

JUN-SEOK: I wasn't.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SCIUTTO: The official death toll so far stands at 36. Today three bodies were recovered from inside the ship. Another 266 passengers are still believed trapped inside. Our Kyung Lah is in Jindo, South Korea, with the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The ferry captain Lee Jun- Seok answering a question consuming hundreds of desperate relatives, why would you order passengers to stay on a sinking ship?

"The current was very high and the water temperature was cold and if you had not worn a life jacket or even if you had worn one, if you got off the boat with no judgment, you would have been swept very far away" he says.

The captain is handcuffed, arrested on five different charges, including abandoning ship and causing bodily injury resulting in death according to South Korean News Agency Yonhap. In this newly released video, you can see the captain right after he was rescued from his own sinking ship. While hundreds of others were left behind. In the eyes of many here in South Korea, he's public enemy number one. Prosecutors reveal the captain wasn't on the bridge when the boat began to sink, but still hold him responsible for, quote, "failing to slow down while sailing the narrow route and making the turn excessively." Also released radio traffic between the ferry and authorities. The first sign of distress came in at 8:55 a.m. local time.

SHIP: Please notify the coast guard. Our ship is in danger. The ship is rolling right now.

LAH: Now that all that remains of the ferry above the surface are -- marking its position. New footage from inside the doomed ferry continues to surface. In this survivor's video the ship is already at an extreme angle as passengers clamor to high ground. Others brace themselves inside as they were instructed by the crew. It's unclear if these people made it out alive. One man who did make it out alive couldn't bear the reality in the end. In a wooded area near where distraught relatives are camped out in Jindo, police say the vice principal of the school where these kids attended hung himself.

And in his suicide note, police say he took responsibility for the loss of life and asked for his ashes to be placed over the site. His suicide has heightened fears that relatives of the missing might soon do the same. "I want to jump into the sea," she says, "thinking about my child in the sea, how can I as a parent eat or drink? I hate myself for this."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: It was a desperate situation there, and Kyung Lah joining us live now from South Korea. You know, certainly heartbreaking frustrating for the families. Kyung, I wonder how grief counselors handle that difficult balance between maintaining some hope even as hope wanes that there are still survivors inside the sunken ship? LAH: Well, we'd like to tell you that there are a lot of these families who are actually seeking grief counseling, but there are not. There are counselors here at the dock and there are also counselors at the gymnasium where many, many of the families are staying as well and what they tell us is that, they are just not that busy. There is a stigma here in South Korea about mental health and, you know, it seems at this point that the families simply don't want to go there right now.

That the counselors say they haven't really talked to that many people, that those parents don't seem all that concerned about their well-being, they're focused on trying to bring their children back, that they're focused on the investigation. So, and that's a big concern here for the counselors because of what we saw from the vice principal, because of the high suicide rate here in South Korea. Jim, as you may be aware of the OECD says that South Korea is ranked number one as far as OECD countries as far as suicide -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Frightening prospect, tragedy on top of tragedy. Now, we spoke earlier about how those cranes out there that could be used to lift the ship, but as a gesture to the families, rescuers are asking the families if they are ready for that to happen. Are they close to a decision to do that?

LAH: It doesn't appear so. And part of it also as far as the delay in using them is the massive logistical effort in trying to get them in place to lift the ship itself. That's also a procedure. And the families here are also quite split about whether or not they should be used immediately or not. About half the families want them to be used. About half don't. There is a lot of frustration, though, about what is the way forward, how do you get this ship out of the water. If there are, you know, and it's dimming every single minute, but if there are any survivors aboard this vessel, how do you access them if there's so much pressure that you can't even break through these windows -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Dangerous for the divers, true, trying to do those rescues. Kyung Lah, thanks very much. Right on the scene there. There will be much more on the families as they wait for words on their children coming up on at the bottom of this hour.

Now, elsewhere Yemeni defense ministry officials tells CNN three well- known al-Qaeda operatives are among ten suspected militants killed in a U.S. drone strike. Officials say the drone hit a pickup truck carrying the militants as they traveled to an area known as a hotbed for al-Qaeda. One militant was injured as well. Three civilians in a separate truck were also killed.

The hit follows video evidence of the largest and most dangerous gathering of al-Qaeda in years. The U.S. is the only country known to have conducted drone strikes in Yemen.

And now, to Ukraine where the war of words between Kiev, Russia and the west continues to heat up. CNN is just learning the U.S. plans to conduct military exercises in Eastern Europe. According to a western official I spoke with earlier this afternoon a company of about 150 troops will be in Poland, another 150 in Estonia. These exercises will take place in the coming weeks as part of a continuing operation, in other words, they will be rotated in and out. It's not meant to be a one-off. We are only two days into an international pact designed to ease tensions in Ukraine, but so far there's little indication that any progress has been made on the ground.

Pro-Russian separatists are rejecting calls to leave the public buildings they ceased in cities across Eastern Ukraine, they also refuse to lay down their weapons. The eastern region of Ukraine remains locked in a stale mate as 40,000 Russian troops wait near the border and Russian President Vladimir Putin won't recall his troops saying, they are there due to Ukraine's political instability.

Want to get the latest on the ground in Ukraine. Our own Frederik Pleitgen is live in Kiev. Fred, so one of the key elements of this pact was for those separatists militants to depart and disarm. There's still no indication of that yet. What are they waiting for?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's absolutely no indication at this point in time they say that they're going to make their own demands. I mean, on the front of it, they say that they first of all see the agreement that was reached there in Geneva is not binding for them, they say that Moscow has no right to sign any sort of agreements for them and now they've come and made counter demands. One of thing are demanding, is for the interim government here in Kiev to step down.

That's certainly something that is not going to happen at lease if you ask the government here in the Ukrainian capital. And also, they say that some of the right-wing groups that have apparently been armed on the Ukrainian side but for instance, the right sector need to disarm before these groups in the east of the country the pro-Russian groups are going to disarm. So, certainly they seem very difficult steps. And on the other hand, there also doesn't appear to be any sort of pressure at least publicly from Moscow for these militias to disarm.

In fact, Moscow is saying exactly the same thing as these pro-Russians protesters are saying, they're also saying that they want right wing groups here in Ukraine to disarm and certainly they don't seem to see any sort of urgency for these groups to leave those buildings very quickly. Now, the Ukrainian government for its part is trying to ease the situation. They said at least over the Easter holiday, then actually right in front of the oldest churches here in Kiev where a lot of the Easter celebrations are going on right now. At least over the Easter holidays, they say, they aren't going to be any sort of military operations. However, if there isn't some sort of agreement or some sort of movement too or they say, then they are going to re- launch what they call that anti-terror operation in the east -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes. We had two versions of reality there between the west and Russia. I want to show our viewers because we have a map here of where these U.S. military exercises are going to be taking place. They're going to take place in two NATO allies which are just to the west of Ukraine, that's Poland here. You can't actually see Estonia, that is just north of Belarus up here, one of the three Baltic States. A company of U.S. troops in Poland and another company up there as you can see close to Ukraine and close to Russia. And Fred, I wonder if I can ask you. You've been there a long time. You've talked to people on the ground. How important a gesture would this be for the government in Kiev and for other NATO allies in the region?

PLEITGEN: I think it would be a very important gesture and it will be a very important gesture. I spoke to this country's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk just a couple of days ago and I asked him, what do you think the western specifically -- what do you think the United States should do? Now he said, he believes at this point in time that the west and the U.S. are doing what they can, they're trying to mitigate the situation, they're trying to keep dialogue open, but they are also ramping up the pressure on Moscow. When I asked him specifically about the military aid, he says, he understands at this point in time there's only so much the west can do, but he said that any sort of aid would be of great help.

So, even if this might seem like a sort of token force, 150 people is certainly not very much, but putting U.S. soldiers on Nato's Eastern borders is certainly that sees the U.S. making a statement towards Russia and certainly also making a statement that will bolster always the confidence of the government here in Kiev.

So, certainly it is something that will very important and one of the things that you were mentioning is that, this is not a one-off, this is something it is going to happen again and again, a rotational thing, something that's going to continue, that certainly is the kind of commitment that these countries want to see, the want to see U.S. assets on their territory, to make sure that the U.S. will protect them even though at this point it still might be very small, Jim.

SCIUTTO: As you and I talked about before, those on the ground they've been hungry for a commitment like that. Thanks very much to Fred Pleitgen on the ground in Kiev. And coming up just after this, I'm going to talk to Congressman Adam Schiff, he's on the House Intelligence Committee about the fast-moving developments in Ukraine.

Now to another major story we're following. The Bluefin 21 is scouring the floor of the Indian Ocean searching for any sign of Flight 370 but only for another five to seven days. Then what? My panel of experts are going to weigh in right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Welcome back, I'm Jim Sciutto in New York. In the Southern Indian Ocean, that underwater drone needs another week or so to scan the ocean floor for airplane debris, that is, of course, unless it finds something in the meantime. So far, the Bluefin 21 has completed six missions in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. The search of the ocean surface hasn't stopped either. Eleven military airplanes and 12 ships covered three separate search areas today off Western Australia. In the coming days, Malaysia government officials will meet with the passengers' families again. The families want to see the plane's logbook and maintenance record and listen to the air ground recordings of the flight group for all the communications went silent. I want to get to my expert panel here to analyze the latest developments, we have our aviation analyst Michael Kay, he's a retired Royal Air Force pilot. Arthur Rosenberg is an aviation attorney and engineer and calling from Hawaii by Skype, we have oceanographer Greg Stone, he's the chief scientist for Conservation International. So, Michael, perhaps I can start with both of you here. Just to get an assessment of this. They are now putting this very tight time frame, five to seven days, otherwise we have to reassess. Why this sudden urgency? Is that a good sign or a bad sign? I start with you Mike.

MICHAEL KAY, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: There are two aspects to this search, subsurface and above surface and they're very different and they should be treated with a different approach. The subsurface I think should be played out to its natural conclusions. And we've seen it happening reassuringly. We've seen the ping locator go down there. We've seen operates to the outer limits of what we think the batteries, we're lost and then we've made the jump to the Bluefin. Angus Houston has the big 100 percent sure when he goes to bed at night he's absolutely exhausted every single piece of it. That's the subsurface. The above surface is different. The maritime surveillance aircraft.

SCIUTTO: Looking for floating wreckage.

KAY: Looking for floating wreckage. Angus Houston said, he cannot equivocally tie the two together unless he gets some sort of wreckage. These maritime surveillance aircraft that have been going under tempo which is unsustainable. They are limitations not only human factors but there are also limitations on the engineering of the aircraft and how long they can supply for on various levels of servicing that have to be achieved the longer they goes on. So, we have to treat them separately.

SCIUTTO: Fair point. They've been going at an incredible phase for well more than a month. But Arthur, I wonder, if you are looking and you have a pretty good confidence that because of those pings that you've refined the search area, I believe you said that 300 square miles or so, why stop after five or seven days with the sonar scan as you're looking for that wreckage in that area?

ARTHUR ROSENBERG, AVIATION ATTORNEY: Right. Well, I think what's going on is this -- we -- the areas that are being searched in addition to the pings represents a coalesced analysis based on the Inmarsat data, the satellite data, the radar data.

SCIUTTO: They can find flight path, they can find the pings and they refine the area.

ROSENBERG: But the key to that is that those analyses, three separate analyses led to these areas. Now, the ping kind of fine-tunes it. What's very interesting about the pings too, also, is that the pings are not omnidirectional. They're not unidirectional, the omnidirectional.

SCIUTTO: It gives you a general idea. It doesn't point you right to it. ROSENBERG: Right. So, for example, if you were in the Grand Canyon shouting you would hear an echo, you would hear a sound or you wouldn't necessarily know what it is.

SCIUTTO: It bounces off things and the same thing happens underwater.

ROSENBERG: So now, with the Bluefin 21 going down and painting the ocean bottom with sonar, getting pictures of what's down there, it's is very time consuming. And in a week they're going to be done painting this first area.

SCIUTTO: Three hundred square miles.

ROSENBERG: Three hundred square miles.

SCIUTTO: So, if you don't see in that week, that's being, you know what, we have to redefine the search area and look somewhere else?

ROSENBERG: Well, as we're speaking I actually know that that's being done, the analysis is being done. Inmarsat is looking at the data again.

SCIUTTO: To look for another search area.

ROSENBERG: To fine-tune that date together with their Doppler analysis to see if they can narrow the search area even more.

SCIUTTO: OK.

ROSENBERG: But what's important, having done this search area, we've learned a lot. We've learned most importantly if it turns up that we can't find any wreckage. That the plane's not there. And then we would move on to a second area. And just one other thing --

SCIUTTO: Let me bring in before I make that point just because we have Greg Stone, this is news, this idea that they're going to look again at the data to perhaps refine the search area, you know, you know, the sense of these pings and how they use those pings to find a better direction as to where the plane might be. How do you read these developments?

GREG STONE, CHIEF SCIENTIST, CONSERVATIVE INTERNATIONAL: Well, I have a couple of comments. One is, you know, I have not been privy to looking at the data on these pings. But I do know there's a lot of -- seem to be from what I heard in the news anyway, they were pretty spotty. And there are other things in the ocean that can create that frequency of sound. For example, there are a number of tuna that are tagged with special devices and they're swimming around and they're pinging away as well. So --

SCIUTTO: To be fair, Greg, the investigators have said they have very good confidence that what they're hearing from these pings are from that plane, from the black boxes.

STONE: OK. Well, I'll go with that. But I just do want to point out that there are other things in the ocean that make that sound and, in fact, that they haven't been able to locate anything so far makes me also agree that, you know, you need to reassess and go other places. The other thing that I wonder about is, why do we only have that one Bluefin, autonomous underwater vehicle out there. There are quite a few in the world and some of them with better capability than that. For example, there's a Remus class of vehicles that can go deeper.

And it seems to me that we should be deploying those other assets. They exist. And they could cover a larger area. I mean, this thing travels at the speed of walking underwater so, you know, going back to the Grand Canyon analogy, can you imagine, you know, walking around at night with a flashlight trying to find something in that vast area? I would get two or three vehicles.

SCIUTTO: And it's a very good point, one that a number of guests have asked before, why not more resources at this particular time. Listen, all of you are going to have another chance to talk because we'll going to come back to the panel in a short time to get us through these developments.

But first, my next guest recently returned from Ukraine and has been calling for more U.S. action against Russia for some time. Coming up, Congressman Adam Schiff weighs in on the escalating violence there and the latest news that the U.S. will conduct military exercises in Eastern Europe, that's right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Welcome back. I'm Jim Sciutto in New York. President Obama says there is no U.S. military option on the table for Ukraine. This week he also said the situation is not in his words amenable to a clear military solution. But as we've been reporting in just the last hour or so, U.S. soldiers will begin small-scale military exercises in both Poland and Estonia very soon.

I want to bring in Congressman Adam Schiff he's a democrat from California, he's also a member of the House Intelligence Committee and also returned recently from a visit to Ukraine. Congressman Schiff, now Ukraine confirmed these details of these U.S. military exercises. They are small. About a company each in Estonia in the north and Poland just to the west of Ukraine, how significant do you think this military gesture is?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), CALIFORNIA: I think it's very positive. I was in Lithuania as well, Jim, and they're hungry to have a greater NATO presence there. My expectation is that this would be just the beginning of a greater NATO presence. We've already seen more fighter jets now. This small military exercises, but I think that there should also be some forward deployment of assets to, you know, reinvigorate the confidence within our NATO partners in the region that we will stand by article five which says basically an attack on any of them is an attack on all of us. So, I think the military exercises are a very good idea, they're not so large that they're going to cause the Russians to escalate, but I think we will need to do more along those lines.

SCIUTTO: Just as you were talking there, Congressman Schiff, the map came up on the board. And I just want to remind our viewers where these troops are going, so they know Poland, NATO ally just to the west of Ukraine, Estonia also a NATO ally which, as you can see there, borders Russia, so this could be the U.S. military exercises right on the border with Russia. Now to be fair, Congressman Schiff, it's a 300-force troops in total. There are 40,000 Russian forces just to the east of Ukraine. Based on your travels there, what you saw on the ground, were you more concerned when you left there that Russia would send those forces inside Ukraine?

SCHIFF: Certainly very concerned about it, Jim, because we see all of the same kind of pretext we saw with the invasion of Crimea taking place in the eastern part of Ukraine. I think the tentative agreement, it was reached in Geneva may be a pause to take a breath here, that may be a positive but probably a small positive and I think we still need to prepare for the worst which means that we need to try to line up our European allies for very strong sector-wide sanctions if Russia moves in.

The Russia has a big say in what goes on in Eastern Ukraine, they have a big say in what this so-called protesters are doing, they are taking over government buildings in the east and if they wish to escalate and destabilize further, they can do it and they need to know there will be a price to pay if they do. The one thing I think is positive, Jim, is if these monitors that are going in can be successful in helping to oversee the elections that are supposed to take place in late May, that could be a big boost for the Ukraine government and give it legitimacy throughout the country. So, they could play a very important role if the Russians don't meddle too substantially.

SCIUTTO: You know, we spoke to Ambassador Chris Hill a short time ago, former U.S. ambassador to Iraq. He raised an interesting point. He said that as the pro-Russian forces have seized the buildings in eastern Ukraine have, so far, refused to comply to vacate the buildings, it's possible that Russia may not be able to control them anymore. And he made the point that Russia's been cynical throughout, so they may not be trying to.

I wonder what you think is happening with this agreement? Is Russia not following through or does Russia not have the ability in effect to follow through?

SCHIFF: I don't think Russia is following through. I think they do have the ability. I think it's true that Russia could unleash forces that later may be hard to contain, even for Russia. But it's hard for me, given the Russian secret service presence there, given how many of the people are carrying Russian arms operating according to a Russian playbook, that Russia doesn't have a greater say in telling them to stand down. So you may have some of the loud mouths there saying they won't do what Russia wants, but my guess is, if Russia put its foot down, the buildings would be vacated in short order.

SCIUTTO: Thanks very much, Congressman Adam Schiff. You've seen it on the ground himself. We appreciate your analysis on latest developments.

Thanks for joining us. SCHIFF: You bet.

SCIUTTO: Coming up, heartbreaking stories coming out of South Korea as divers continue to search for survivors in the capsized ferry. Police are forming barricades to keep their families from committing suicide, and hooking them up to I.V.s because they refuse to eat. All that, that desperate wait, is right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: In South Korea, the loaded ferry that capsized four days ago is no longer poking just above the water. Large floating bags are the only thing marks its location now. The death toll stands at 36. Divers today recovered three more bodies. Family members providing DNA samples to help with identification. The captain and two crew members now face multiple criminal charges.

The ordeal is taking a heavy toll on the parents waiting for word about their children. Grief counselors are available. Unfortunately, cultural norms often favor suicide.

Here is CNN's Kyung Lah.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(SHOUTING)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It defies the natural order, a parent whose child may have died first. Hundreds of parents now face the unthinkable. Some so grief stricken they refuse to eat, connected to I.V.s.

Many, like this couple, whose son is missing, expressing this common sentiment among the parents: "I don't want to live."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

LAH: "If I don't have my younger child, I want to jump in the sea," she says. "Thinking about my child in the sea, how can I, as a parent, eat or drink? I hate myself for this."

That's not an idle threat, say counselors, who are stationed where parents wait for news. The mental health workers are unfortunately not busy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

LAH: "No one came to us for counseling," says this therapist. "The families don't care about their safety or well-being."

They hope that will change before more follow the vice principal of the high school where the missing students attended.

Two days after rescuers pulled him to safety, police say he hung himself in these hills just outside this gym where parents wait. He left a note to the parents saying he suggested the student field trip so it was all his fault. A horrific turn.

But in South Korea, suicide is a real threat. South Korea has the world's highest rate of suicide among OECD countries, with many high- profile examples.

(SHOUTING)

LAH: Former President No Nu Jun (ph) jumped to his death in 2009 in the wake a financial scandal. Hyundai president, Chung Mun Hahn (ph) leaped off a building during a corruption investigation. Korean starlet, Cha Chen Shiel (ph), distraught after her husband's affair, hung herself. Then, her brother, husband, and former manager all committed suicide.

There may be many underlying reasons: South Korea's ultra-competitive society and unwillingness to accept failure, a culture where shame carries a heavy burden, to simple societal acceptance.

Whatever the cause with so many parents screaming this at Jindo --

(SHOUTING)

LAH: -- "How are we going to live now," she screams, a country braces for the fallout of an already heartbreaking disaster.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Jindo, South Korea.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Also in Asia, there was more tragic news today after the worst-ever disaster on Mt. Everest. Another Sherpa guide has died, bringing the death toll from an avalanche there to 13. Three others are still missing since yesterday's avalanche, which crashed into a group of about 50 people, most of them Sherpas from Nepal. They were delivering supplies to a base camp. Rescuers are still searching for the three remaining missing people.

And still to come, if the Bluefin is successful in its effort to locate flight 370, what happens next? We have a look at the device that would bring the missing plane's wreckage up from the ocean floor. That's after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: If and when the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 is located, one of the most advanced underwater search vehicles in existence will join the hunt for the flight recorders.

CNN's Rosa Flores is here with more on how that search vehicle works.

Rosa, this is the thing that would go down and actually pluck the recorders out of the wreckage?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I know you and I talked about it off camera, because I actually learned about ROVs at the dinner table because my husband is a subsea engineer. So that's how I got familiar.

SCIUTTO: Not many could say that.

FLORES: Yeah. That's how I'm familiar with the vehicles. But it's remotely operated vehicles, and they're used by the industry on a regular basis. The vehicles have been tested and vetted. They've worked. And that's why experts say this is the tool for the job.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES (voice-over): This could be the key to solving the mystery of flight 370. It's a remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, for short.

Once wreckage of flight 370 is identified, an ROV, like this one, is likely the next crucial step in finding the plane's black box.

MARTIN STITT, ROV SUPERINTENDENT: All of the hydraulics running.

FLORES: It's controlled from the surface using this joystick.

STITT: Coming around now.

FLORES: Has lights to illuminate the stark black of the ocean deep. Cameras transmitting back footage in real time.

STITT: TMS hydraulics on.

FLORES: And high-frequency sonar to combat the notoriously difficult visibility in the area of the Indian Ocean where the plane is believed to be.

But most importantly, the ROV has robotic arms called manipulators.

STITT: The arm has jaws. You open and close the jaws.

FLORES: They are essentially mechanical hands, able to retrieve objections from the ocean floor, far deeper than any human could withstand.

STITT: Stand and retract.

FLORES: A second manipulator can be equipped with tools for cutting through metal such as on the fuselage of a plane.

STITT: It will be ideal if there's a black box, and not a problem at all for an ROV to pick it up and put it in a basket and recover it back to the vessel.

FLORES: Experts say top priority for investigators is to retrieve both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder.

This ROV, called the Trident XLS, can go to depths of around 10,000 feet. But the ROV that's brought to the wreckage of flight 370 could have to withstand the pressure of around 15,000 feet of water.

Underwater pulses were detected at that depth last week. And unlike the Bluefin searchers are currently using, the ROV is connected to the boat through a line called an umbilical and has a constant power source, and is able to feedback information immediately.

STITT: The ROV can stay submerged for days.

FLORES: And the hope is with these capabilities, the ROV will finally manage to bring some answers to the surface.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES: So, Jim, I talked to some of the industry experts, including some folks that worked in the Air France flight 447 search team, and one of the things they told me that these ROVs can do is, they can give you a map of the ocean floor of the debris field. So with these ROVs, they're able to fly them around different -- different pieces of debris. And then you're able to figure out where the engines ended up, where the fuselage ended up, where the doors ended up. So that give engineers an idea as to where

(CROSSTALK)

SCIUTTO: As to where the flight recorders would be.

FLORES: Right. Exactly. And it's impact. How it impacted the ocean and how the debris was spread on the ocean floor.

SCIUTTO: It could be a key part of the investigation --

FLORES: Correct. Correct.

SCIUTTO: -- looking at how the debris field is.

FLORES: Much more than picking up the black box. It gives you so much information because the vehicles -- like you were saying before, they look a bit clumsy, a little slow, but they are very advanced and can do a lot in the deep sea.

SCIUTTO: They'll be needed. And the key question is will they come into play when the debris is located.

FLORES: Correct.

SCIUTTO: Thank you very much, Rosa Flores.

All this will happen if the Bluefin is successful, if not, then what. Our panel will weigh in next, right after this break.

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SCIUTTO: Welcome back. I'm Jim Sciutto, in New York.

Pick up the search from Malaysia flight 370. The underwater drone has covered nearly 83 square miles since its mission began on Monday and, so far, the underwater drone has not found a shred of evidence linked to the missing plane.

We know the Bluefin's journey this week exceeded its depth 2.8 miles under water.

So I want to bring our panel of aviation and ocean experts back. We're got Greg, Michael, Arthur here as well.

Arthur, would you help frame for our viewers the significance of them saying we are going to give it another five to seven days in the search area and then rethink. Doesn't mean they have given up.

ARTHUR ROSENBERG, AVIATION ATTORNEY: Sure.

SCIUTTO: It just means at that point they may refine the search area, is that right?

ROSENBERG: Absolutely. I think the five to seven days represents this. They looked in the spot that they believe gave the highest pro probability of finding some wreckage. That was based -- we talked about this -- on the coalescing of a number of analyses which gave us our best shot.

SCIUTTO: Of the pings emanating from, what they believe, the flight recorders?

ROSENBERG: It was the pings plus the Inmarsat data. And remember, we had the whole Doppler phase analysis.

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SCIUTTO: And the satellite pings that came from --

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ROSENBERG: Correct. We made certain assumptions about the performance of the airplane and it all brought us to this area.

The way I look at it is the pings were the microscope that focused us in certain discrete areas. Looking at this first area with this first ping, they may find something in the next five to seven days, but on the chance they don't, you have to have Plan B. Plan B is fine-tuning the analysis that you have and looking in the next site, which is the ping that lasted 13 minutes, which I understand is a very strong signal. And --

SCIUTTO: That is their best clue so far.

So, Michael, the other search -- you've talked about this -- subsurface and surface. On the surface, 45 days in, they haven't found a single piece of floating wreckage. What happens with that part of the search?

MICHAEL KAY, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Yeah. That's a great question. I think the key buzz word for me is expectation management. I think the tempo which the crews and the airplanes have been working has been phenomenal. And I don't think it's sustainable.

So I think you've got -- one aspect, you've got the tactical aspects where you've got human factors and fatigue. You've got the limitations on engineering, on the aircraft, the equipment. You got all of that to consider. You've got to regroup that and service the aircraft, the second and third-line servicing.

And then, strategically, you've got the expectation management from Tony Abbott of the families. Let's not forget the families in all of this. So if he can project, even in a week in advance, and manage the expectations of the families and reassure them that what they are doing isn't going to complete the search of the ping area, 300 square miles, five to seven days, and then they're going to reset and then take all the analysis and go back and look at that. Likewise, with the airplane. They will reset and they got to take all of the evidence in, as Arthur was saying, and regroup.

SCIUTTO: I imagine, at the same time, reassure the families they are not giving up.

KAY: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Greg, I wonder if I could bring you in here. You made an interesting point that they may be refining the area of the pings, which may be a reason then for them to reassess and start scanning the ocean floor somewhere else?

GREG STONE, CHIEF SCIENTIST, CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL: Yeah. I think, you know, this whole search is kind of a step function where you got, first, aircraft looking for floating debris, and the debris is only going to float so long and it will disbursed over a wider area. That part of it is, I'm feeling a little -- a little like that -- that we may be coming to the end of that. The second way to do it, of course, is with a ship on the surface that can send sonar beams down and pick up features. Then, the lower you get, with things like Bluefin -- and I said there is other vehicles out there that should be deployed, I think. Then the ROV, the final thing that will go down and pick stuff apart. You could also send a manned submersible down.

But, you know, I want to make a broader statement about the state of undersea exploration and technology. We spent more money, you know, mapping the back side of the moon and the back side of Mars than we do, you know, understanding our own ocean. This points out the fact that most of the planet is ocean, most of it is very deep regions, but we are so limited as a society to be able to deal with something like this. So I would hope it would amp up our oceanographic ability. There's no questions, we can find it if enough resources and enough money is devoted to this. The technology exists in the world to do it and we need more of that technology, of course, developed as soon as possible.

SCIUTTO: That point made many times. We know more about the surface of the moon than the base of the Indian Ocean.

Thanks very much to Greg Stone for joining us.

Arthur and Michael will be back with us the next hour to discuss more developments.

Coming up, does the captain really always go down with the ship? From the "Titanic" to the man who could end up facing life in prison for leaving his ferry, a history of what captains do when disaster strikes.

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SCIUTTO: Time now to introduce you to this week's "CNN Hero." He is a chef who helps families in need.

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JERRY SEINFELD, HOST: Please join me in honoring "CNN Hero," Bruno Sarato.

ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, CNN HERO OF YEAR HOST: When Bruno was honored as a "CNN Hero" in 2011, he was serving pasta to nearly 200 low-income children a day in Anaheim, California.

BRUNO SARATO, CNN HERO: The pasta's ready.

COOPER: Since being rewarded, Bruno's program has grown significantly.

SARATO: Hi, kids. Who likes my pasta?

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SARATO: Now we are 1,000 kids a day, every single day, Monday through Friday.

COOPER: Reaching kids in three more cities in Orange County.

SARATO: Each time I serve a meal, each time I serve a kid, I know I give security to a little kid and he have a full stomach before he go to bed.

You like my pasta?

COOPER: But Bruno does more than just filling their stomach.

SARATO: I request one item, to share the table together. That means emotionally, the family of kids together, eating a big pasta together.

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: It's delicious.

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COOPER: Bruno's group has also gone beyond food. He's helped move 55 homeless families out of motels and into their own apartments.

SARATO: What you think?

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: I love it!

SARATO: You change their life completely, changed their life completely.

COOPER: With no plans to slow down, Bruno's meal program will be in the fifth city this summer.

SARATO: My goal is to go all over the nation. How can I stop when children are starving? The day the children are not starving, I will stop.

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