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Erin Burnett Outfront

Search Planes Taking Off Now; Largest Search Day Yet: 15 Planes, 11 Ships; Officials: Escalating Argument Before Fort Hood Shooting; Interview with Malaysian Opposition Leader

Aired April 04, 2014 - 19:00   ET

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

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Next breaking news on Flight 370, search planes heading over the Indian Ocean, a desperate search under water. It is a biggest search day so far. It was four weeks ago this hour that we found out Malaysia Flight 370 was missing. Families are demanding answers including why no one has searched the remote island of Diego Garcia.

And an OUTFRONT exclusive, the Malaysian opposition leader who has ties to the pilot. This is a special edition of OUTFRONT, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, one month later. Let's go OUTFRONT.

Good evening. Welcome to the special edition of OUTFRONT. I'm Erin Burnett. We want to begin with the breaking news in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Search planes taking off right now. It is the biggest search day so far that's just beginning at this hour. Eleven military planes and four civil jets are taking to the skies. They are joining 11 ships.

Today two Navy vessels are towing pinger locators to locate the so- called black box. They are beginning the underwater search. They are racing against time because the pinger only emits a signal for about 30 days under the best of conditions. The plan was to deploy those locators once the debris field was found.

Since the chances are really next to nothing it is going to find the plane without a debris indicator. But they are desperate because the black box ping is likely going to go silent forever within the next few days. It's a long shot beyond long shots. The ship towing the locator needs to move incredibly slowly in order for the locator to work properly, to hear the ping.

The ships only move three miles an hour. The search area right now is 84,000 square miles. So you can do the math. They are hoping for a miracle. Kyung Lah is in Perth tonight or this morning where the search is beginning, the biggest search day yet. Kyung, how do they think they can cover that vast amount of space at such a slow pace?

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, where those two ships are pulling those pinger locators it's the area that the search crews believe have the highest probability of where the plane may have gone into the water. It's a 150-mile track where the two ships will be pulling those locators. They will start on either end and then they are going to meet in the center. And as you say, Erin, it is moving very, very slowly, 3 miles per hour. It will take them a day and a half just to do that first track and then we assume they are going to move on to another track. The entire search area is far larger. That's where the planes can cover more ground from the air. But this is based on that educated guess, the electronics, the math, they are desperate for some physical scrap of evidence -- Erin.

BURNETT: Kyung, I know there's also questions tonight as to whether the airline, you know, did what it needed to do for these pingers to work properly, cared for them, kept them in the right temperatures, gave them checks they needed to and if they didn't do those things the battery might already be dead, right?

LAH: You're absolutely right. You're specifically talking about the scheduled maintenance in 2012. Those batteries were set for an overhaul. Well, there's three things that the manufacturer tells CNN that the airline could have done. They could have either replaced the pingers themselves, the batteries themselves. They could have hired somebody else to do it or done nothing at all.

If they did nothing at all then it is very likely that those batteries are dead. But at least from the search team perspective what we are hearing is that they are going to work on the assumption that those batteries are working. They are going to give those towed pinger locators about 10 to 12 days at sea to try to find it.

BURNETT: All right, Kyung Lah, thank you very much. The past four weeks have been filled as you know watching the stop, starts, twist, turns that they have said one thing and then said the opposite. It has created frustration, anger and a never ending stream of confusion.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: We have breaking news right now, Malaysia Airlines confirms it has lost contact with the plane carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members.

(voice-over): Flight 370 gone. The plane took off at 12:41 a.m. local time from Kuala Lumpur headed to Beijing. The information from that point trickled out much of it turning out to be false. First, investigators announced the final voice communication from the plane.

But that turned out to be wrong. Malaysian authorities weeks later announced the final words were "Good night Malaysian 370." As for exactly what happened to the plane, authorities say the transponder stopped responding at 1:21 a.m. the night it did you say appeared. The plane then flew on for hour after hour.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Flight 370 literally no solid clues right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three days and counting and no sign of that plane.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is no one stream of information. We don't know what's happening at any given moment. BURNETT: Could it have flown as far north as Kazakhstan, landed in China, on a remote island, was it hijacked or did it got as far south as the bottom of the earth in the Indian Ocean? On March 24th a major announcement, the Malaysian government said all lives were lost.

NAJIB RAZAK, MALAYSIAN PRIME MINISTER: It is, therefore, with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that according to this new data, Flight MH370 ended in the Southern Indian Ocean.

BURNETT: The government relied on analysis from the British satellite company, Inmarsat, which said the plane went south.

(on camera): It sounds like what you are saying is you are sure as you can be that it's accurate?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was peer reviewed. It was very carefully looked at.

BURNETT: Family and friends of those on aboard the plane were crushed and outraged.

On March 27th another apparent break in the investigation. A new analysis of radar data led investigators to move the search nearly 700 miles northeast. Australian authorities called it, quote, "The most credible lead to where debris may be located." So far lead after lead has turned up cold.

The search area shifting daily. As to who is responsible for the disappearance, Malaysia's police chief said all passengers on board the plane have been cleared of wrongdoing. The focus now on the captain, co-pilot and crew. Still, with so many unanswered questions, and no plane, officials now admit there's no end in sight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: No end in sight. Joining me now for the special edition of OUTFRONT for the hour is our Richard Quest and CNN aviation analysts, Miles O'Brien and Jeff Wise. We were all just sitting here during that piece saying you would not think that this could happen in real life, that this would have been some sort of plot for a movie or a thriller. This has been the real events of the past month. What now?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Not only it might have been a plot for a movie, we would have gone and seen it and pontificated as we came out, this could never happen.

BURNETT: Right. How ridiculous those movie writers are?

QUEST: This could never happen because there would always be ACARS, transponder --

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Military radar, you name it. All the things that are in play.

BURNETT: And also we talk about where they are looking, right. They were saying could have been in Kazakhstan, could have been on a remote island, all of these things are possibilities then they seemed to discard them. But now there's no plane. So do we really know where it is, Miles? You've been very critical all the way along of that Inmarsat data.

O'BRIEN: I haven't seen the under lying data. It's proprietary information. It's part of an investigation. There's a criminal investigation. I get all that. Don't you think if that data was shared with the world -- you know they say the best and brightest minds are looking at it, but why not crowd source it. There are a lot of scientist sitting all of the world, engineers, really smart people who understand this stuff with a look at that data might see something that no one else has seen. Why not?

BURNETT: Especially in trying to do math and triangulation. Is there a time when you stop the search? We are talking about the batteries may already be out on the black box and may have a couple of more days. Kyung is reporting, they are going to try for ten days to look, but then what if they don't find it?

JEFF WISE, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: When you look at the language they are using, they are already trying to cool us down. They are already preparing us for the bad news. You know, they stopped using the optimistic language. It's repetition of hardest search ever, hardest search in human history. We'll keep trying. The deployment of these pingers, which no one really expects them to work. We're going to try really hard please forgive us we'll try hard. That's all we can give you.

QUEST: I do think that we all know one month on the way in which they are shifting the search zone, in the same parameters, but doesn't seem to show much logical sense, first major shift. Why go to the right and up a bit then left a bit. We're at the point where they do have to sit down and do the full scale this is what we've got. This is why we're doing it. This is where we're going. The lack of this reset information is now starting to become deafening.

O'BRIEN: Do I detect a shift.

QUEST: Yes.

O'BRIEN: That's a big deal for you. Lay the cards out.

QUEST: I think it needs to be done because you can't just keep saying we're moving it up, but we're moving it here, we're doing this, we're doing that. There comes a point --

BURNETT: And say what you know. We'll talk about that a lot. We have a special edition of OUTFRONT. Four weeks later we still don't know what happened. Sarah Bajc whose partner was on the flight is OUTFRONT.

Plus we have an exclusive interview with the Malaysian opposition leader who has been linked to the pilot of the missing plane. All of this with our special coverage tonight.

Plus the breaking news in the Fort Hood situation with new breaking details on why the gunman might have done it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Breaking news tonight in the hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. At this hour the biggest search day yet beginning, 11 ships, 15 planes heading to the Southern Indian Ocean trying to race against time to find the vanished jet. As I said the biggest search day yet, but it has been four weeks since the plane disappeared. So far nothing.

The families of those on board are demanding answers, growing increasingly frustrated and angry with the Malaysia government for a lack of information. Several family members met with officials in Kuala Lumpur today hoping for any news on what might have happened. Sarah Bjac was at that meeting. Her partner, Phillip Wood, a 50-year- old from Texas with two sons, who was in the process of relocating with Bajc to Malaysia when he boarded Flight 370.

Sarah joins me now via Skype from Kuala Lumpur. Sarah, I know you're there now. You are going ahead with that move that you and Phillip are doing together and obviously you're on your way back to Beijing shortly. You've been in my thoughts and our viewers' thoughts since you were on this program just days ago. How are you doing now?

SARAH BAJC, PARTNER OF PHILIP WOOD, AMERICAN ON FLIGHT 370: I've stabilized a little bit. I think the first couple of days were just excruciating. They just ripped me apart and then, you know, we had several weeks of misleads and misinformation that constantly changed. But in this last week, I think I've come to a realization that for sure the flight is still intact and the passengers are still alive because the sequence of information that we've been given, actually all points to that and that was the common theme at the meeting with the families. I believe all the other families feel the same way that I do.

BURNETT: So, it's intact and that the passengers are alive. You were at that briefing for the family members in Kuala Lumpur. Did you get any new information or anything to answer your questions?

BAJC: We didn't. The only thing that they did is rehash all of the same evidence that they have been providing up until now with the same interpretation so they have a single task of pursuit which is that there's been a crash. That's the only thing they seem to be exploring and they completely and utterly avoid any of the questions that have been brought to the table about the obvious holes in their story.

So, I never actually went to any of the family briefings in China, I steered clear of them for many obvious reasons. But this one here in Malaysia was very interesting. The Malaysians are taking a much more logical, much more calm approach. There were several representatives from families who kept asking the same questions over and over. The same ones I have. And the government refuses to answer those questions.

BURNETT: And, when you talk about the flight path and, obviously, as we all know there were -- there were so many possibilities at the beginning. Then they said we know for sure it's down in the southern part of the Indian Ocean, but obviously there's been absolutely no evidence of the plane being there as you point out. Did they give you any new information or any back up data to make a case for the plane's flight path?

BAJC: Nothing that hadn't already been said and even within a single statement there's always some contradiction. So on one hand, Inmarsat said has given precise readings, and then on the other hand they say, they've never really interpreted this kind of data before so we're not sure about what they are saying. You know, they always give two sides of the argument in any statement, which contradicts each other.

But the one really unanswered question is this, this basic fact, or reality that that airplane flew for a very long time over Malaysian airspace. So, you know, how long exactly I'm not sure but half an hour, 45 minutes, you got a 777, an unidentified object that theoretically has no communication with the ground flying over their airspace and they are saying that their military just didn't see it.

Right or they didn't think it was a threat. They thought it was friendly. I don't believe that. The Malaysian military is quite sophisticated. They got one of the best radar coverage systems in this part of the world. They are clearly hiding something.

BURNETT: And we're going to be talking to the opposition leader from Malaysia in just a few moments on this program as well. I know he has a lot to say, actually the one who bought that radar system for Malaysia. But when you say they are covering something up, why do you think they would do that?

BAJC: I think they are doing that to hide what's really happened to the plane. Now whether that purely a Malaysian activity or if other countries are involved, I don't know. I mean, I really don't know why or how they pulled it off. But I refuse to believe that the Malaysian military ignored a 777 in their airspace. There was one of the family members, a young gentleman who pushed forward an idea that he had had noticed from people he knew that the jet had actually been accompanied by fighter planes for some period of time.

There was some witness to that. Now that's the first time I ever heard of that prior to this meeting. But that actually makes a lot more sense than a flight being ignored by the military. So, I think we need to have better view into where that plane ultimately went and who has got it now.

BURNETT: And, Sarah, you spent so much time and I know you're very emotional and very analytical going through this and you have really dome the conclusion that it's intact and somebody has custody or control of it right now?

BAJC: Yes. My heart tells me Phillip is still alive. I feel his presence still. I feel confident that he's still connected to me in reality not just in spirit and logically, it's the only thing that makes sense. And, again, sometimes you just have to look at that one little nugget and maybe all the run up to it or follow on from it don't make any sense yet, but I'm sure that the military and Malaysians knew that plane was there and has tracked it in some way.

Whether they were in control of it or not, I can don't know. It could have been, many people said it was the United States that was involved. A lot of people are pointing fingers at the Chinese. You know the Russians have been raised. The general thinking across the families here and even nonfamilies, the people I've had a chance to meet with that are local Malaysians with connection to the military and/or security, they all believe this is actually a military operation of some sort.

BURNETT: All right, Sarah, thank you very much. It's good to talk to you again. Thank you for doing this before your flight and safe travels.

Still to come more of our special coverage of the search for Flight 370. You heard what Sarah just said. Our panel is going to talk about that. Four weeks ago, this flight disappeared off the radar and we have an exclusive look how many other planes were in the sky that night. Sarah's point they would have seen it. We know how many planes were in the sky, when and where. We are going to show.

The other breaking news story we're watching closely tonight. We have new information about the Fort Hood shooter. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Breaking news in the deadly shooting at Fort Hood, according to investigators, authorities have credible information that Specialist Ivan Lopez was involved in a verbal altercation before he opened fire. He murdered three fellow soldiers. Sixteen others were wounded before Lopez turned the gun on himself and took his own life.

Military officials say Lopez had a history of depression and psychiatric disorders and that a claim of traumatic brain injury came from a reported fall while on patrol in Iraq. He was evaluated and released. Ed Lavandera has more on what may have caused that horrific day.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Investigators are trying to unravel details of an argument between Specialist Ivan Lopez and other soldiers. Fort Hood officials suspect that an altercation holds the clues to what sparked Lopez's deadly rampage --

CHRIS GREY, U.S. ARMY CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION COMMAND: The subject proceed to travel to two other nearby buildings, entering those locations and opening fire. In transit to those locations, while in his personal vehicle, he indiscriminately fired at other soldiers while moving from one location to another.

LAVANDERA: Sergeant Jonathan Westbrook was shot four times and survived. His father says Westbrook worked in the office where the shooting erupted. Westbrook's father tells CNN affiliate, WLBT, in Mississippi, that Lopez wanted to pick up a leave form, but was told to come back the next day. The father says Lopez returned to the office and started shooting.

THEODIS WESTBROOK, SOLDIER'S FATHER: The first guy he shot right in front of my son was killed and then he turned the gun towards Jonathan. Aimed it and fired. I can only imagine what my child was going through to see somebody else get shot down and then realize that, you know, the gun is coming at you next.

LAVANDERA: Military officials say even though Lopez was being treated for mental and behavioral issues and possibly PTSD, they haven't found any signs of traumatic experiences during his deployment in Iraq in 2011.

LT. GENERAL MARK MILLEY, COMMANDER, FORT HOOD: His underlying medical conditions are not a direct precipitating factor. We believe the immediate precipitating factor was more likely an escalating argument in his unit area.

LAVANDERA: According to a statement from Lopez's family his mother and grandfather passed away in recent months. The family said the Army specialist was receiving medical treatment and believe the stresses in his life affected his condition. "My son must not have been in his right mind. He was not like that," his father said. The mayor of his home town in Puerto Rico and a family friend believes a dispute with the army over leave time might have triggered this violent reaction.

The mayor says he didn't get authorization for the time he wanted to spend with his mother during her last moments. I've heard many versions from friends saying that he had a difficult time processing that situation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: Now Erin, tonight a U.S. military official tells CNN that Lopez was awarded full time off to go to that funeral anywhere between 10 and 14 days, but he declined and a U.S. military official also tells CNN that he was transitioning to a new specialty in the Army truck driving and that Lopez wanted to get back to go through more of that training that he needed to go through. This is one of those situations and part, one of the things investigators are taking a much closer look at tonight.

BURNETT: All right, thank you very much, Ed. Still to come more of our special breaking coverage of the search for Flight 370 one month later. Families of the passenger demanding answer including at the latest session, why the remote island of Diego Garcia hasn't been searched. And an exclusive interview with the Malaysian politician with ties to the pilot.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Welcome back to our special edition of OUTFRONT.

We're following breaking news on Flight 370 tonight. The biggest search day yet just beginning, 15 planes, 11 ships, going out in what officials call the most difficult search in human history. It was a month ago this hour that we first got word the plane was missing. And still there is not a speck of debris or proof of the plane's fate. After a month of exhaustive efforts, serious questions still remain, questions you the viewers have been asking, and at a closed door briefing last night from authorities in Malaysia, the families of missing passengers walked away frustrated again. You just heard Sarah Bajc talking about what the families were asking and thinking.

CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is OUTFRONT in Kuala Lumpur.

Nic, you talked to family members. What were they demanding and asking?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, they are asking can the investigators trust the Inmarsat data. That's the data that gave the pings, that gave the current location and investigators are telling them, well, it's the best thing we have. We have to go on it.

The families are saying, well, have you looked at the Diego Garcia military base on those British owned Indian Ocean islands. Again the investigators telling the families, well, that's not on the Inmarsat data and there's no evidence to suggest that the planes might have gone, there might have been hijacked, might have landed there, might have been shot down there.

So, the families are not satisfied with that answer. They want to know if they can listen to those air traffic control recordings, the voices of the pilot and first officer. They were told again part of the investigation can't do that.

They want to know what was in the cargo. What was in the cargo? Again, part of the investigation they were told, they can't know that.

They want to know whether the plane took a left or a right turn when it turned back to Malaysia. They were shown maps, but having talked to someone present in that meeting and still confusing and unclear exactly the route that the plane took. So, they are asking the same questions they have been asking. They're not getting the answers they want.

But what the narrative that you're getting here is a real questioning over the route and this issue of some kind of conspiracy that the plane might have landed in Diego Garcia. This is something that the investigators just can't lay to rest for these families, saying that they can only go with this Inmarsat data that they have right now, Erin.

BURNETT: Nic Robertson, thank you very much.

You know, joining me back with us now, our panel, Richard Quest, Miles O'Brien, Jeff Wise.

Look, this is pretty incredible. I was just saying that, you know, the families are asking these questions, Miles. They don't have -- they are not be given the data. They are now asking, it's now being discussed openly with theories that have been dismissed as utterly fantastic like landing near the military island of Diego Garcia.

Why -- these questions are just being asked, why can't they give all the information, all of the data?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: They have secret investigations in Malaysia. These families are entitled to this information at this point. They have been tortured. They have an investigation that has been rife with lack of communication. And thus, credibility is next to nothing. And as a result the competency, we don't know where it is. We have no way of saying.

Richard believes it's a good investigation at its core. How do we know? Lay it out on the table because these families deserve it.

BURNETT: You know, Richard, the other thing is the cockpit recordings, right? We have the transcript. They finally released that. But the recording would seem to be -- I understand why you might not want to listen to the public. But isn't it -- they're not letting even the family members of the pilots and crew hear them.

Isn't the only person who would know if they was tension or strangeness in the pilot's voice, the people who knew the best?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: They never do. The cockpit voice recorder in the original voice, I can't remember --

QUEST: We're not close to finding it anyway. I mean, the air traffic control communications.

BURNETT: The communications back and forth.

QUEST: You know, this is part of the investigation. Where I think they do have, the families do have a right to have certain questions answered, however nonsensical or however extreme things like Diego Garcia. If they believe, if the families believe and have an honest belief that the plane could have gone there, it is incumbent upon the rest of us to go and have a look even to put their minds at rest. I cannot -- whatever it costs, you spend it.

BURNETT: Well, you heard Sarah Bajc. I mean, very analytical, very rational, emotional she believes that plane is intact and has landed somewhere. I mean, there is no proof -- she's right, there's no proof to the contrary at this point.

QUEST: But the Malaysians say, for example, Erin, let's take the mangosteen in the cargo. They say they have spoken to not only --

BURNETT: The lithium batteries.

QUEST: No, no, no. The fruit.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: The mangosteen.

QUEST: The mangosteen. The Malaysian authorities, the police now say they've spoken to the farmers and growers and people who packed it and this is the level of an investigation that is now under way. The depth of it is quite enormous in the same way we're talking about it.

BURNETT: Yes. But at the same time, Jeff, you have the reality that it took more than a week and weeks in some cases to begin to even interview families of the crew and pilot. Yes, Richard has a point. But at the same time, if that was in depth and being done well, that would have been among the first things you did.

JEFF WISE, AVIATION JOURNALIST: Well, there's a lot to do and it all came out empty, apparently.

I do have a degree of sympathy, Miles, for the Malaysians, because this is the strangest case. And we were talking about this before the show. This is the strangest case any of us have heard of.

So, they are trying to explain to people the unexplainable. Certainly given the information we have now.

In our language, we say conspiracy theories like a shorthand term for crazy theory. This was a conspiracy. If you look at the way the plane was flown --

BURNETT: If there's a points to entertain it, it's in this case.

QUEST: Yes, let's go back to the basics. You go and look where you think the plane is. Last Friday and Saturday. You suddenly realize it's not there.

BURNETT: It's not there.

QUEST: Then, you suddenly say, well we have military data that has this. It can't be right. Are you sure? Believe me, it looks like it did this. Somebody else says, hang on a second.

And this is to your point, this thing just built and built.

BURNETT: My question also if the Inmarsat data was so sure and I talked to the Inmarsat man on this show, others did as well, it was in this area in the southern Indian Ocean. It wasn't there. And, of course, it could still be there. And there's no evidence to the surface. But to this point, it's not there.

Doesn't that mean it's just as likely to be in the northern arc than the southern, if they are wrong on their so certain spot to begin with?

O'BRIEN: Again, if we can see the under lying data. They say it was peer reviewed.

BURNETT: Then maybe not, OK.

O'BRIEN: You know, it would be good to see how and why and be able to have experts the world over look at the northern arc and see if that's --

BURNETT: What about what Sarah brought up? I'll talk to the opposition leader in just a moment, the man who actually bought this radar system that Malaysia has. What about these questions that everyone is raising and we're going to also look at how many planes are in the air.

This plane suddenly goes rogue, heads towards Kuala Lumpur with two of the tallest towers in the world, the Petronas Towers, and Malaysian military and radar doesn't notice it? That is a fair point.

O'BRIEN: That's a fair question. If, in fact, what they say is true they didn't detect it, that's such a breach of their security and defenses and embarrassment.

(CROSSTALK)

BURNETT: Without talking to it?

O'BRIEN: How could that be?

QUEST: I think that is -- until we find any further evidence, there's no doubt in my mind that that is the biggest scandal so far. That there has not had an explanation from anyone other than the military is holding its own investigation. The plane could fly back across and that Thailand would notice it and didn't do anything. We've not heard a word from Indonesia.

BURNETT: No, not a word.

QUEST: Not a word.

BURNETT: Other than to say it didn't land there.

QUEST: Or to say what happened when it flew over it.

Now, those are the scandals in my review not whether "all right, good night" was the correct wording or whether they said it's --

(CROSSTALK)

BURNETT: All right. Thank you.

And OUTFRONT next, the shocking charge leveled against the Malaysian government, the opposition leader who has ties to the pilot. He's going to talk about the pilot, tells me Malaysian authorities are covering up the truth about Flight 370. He is next.

And four weeks after the plane vanished, people are still wondering how could it have happened? So, as we told you, at this hour, we got the news that it disappeared. So, tonight, we're going to take a look at exactly what happened at that moment, what flights are in the area, how they are monitored. You're going to see it live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Welcome back to our special edition of OUTFRONT.

We have breaking news on Flight 370 tonight, with search planes taking off in the largest single search day so far. As they continue to turn up nothing more questions are being asked is what the Malaysian government knew and whether they are withholding any information.

According to the country's opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, they are. Ibrahim says the government installed a sophisticated radar system back in 1994. He would know. He was the finance minister at the time. He says because of that radar system, they know more about the missing plane.

Malaysian officials say Ibrahim who was recently sentenced to five years in prison on charges of sodomy is using the plane's disappearance for political gain. So, shortly before this special edition of OUTFRONT, I asked Ibrahim why he believes the government knows more about Flight 370.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANWAR IBRAHIM, MALAYSIAN OPPOSITION PARTY LEADER: They have the capacity, capability to detect all flight moments from south of Thailand through central Peninsula Malaya. And now, they tell us they are not able to do. Then, I said, why are they not releasing the information? What have they seen from the radar data?

BURNETT: So, do you think the government knows what happened to the plane, to MH370?

IBRAHIM: I believe they know. There's no way for a minister of defense to say we do not know about the radar. Now, that's why we're directing the questions specifically to him.

We raised this question in parliament. We asked for the setting up a select committee to allow for thorough discussions for us to support the government efforts and initiated. But they have rejected.

We asked for a debate in parliament. This was rejected.

So, we can't have a system of parliamentary system without accountability.

BURNETT: Do you think it's just that they are covering up they were incompetent or do you think they are covering up something more nefarious?

IBRAHIM: Initially, I thought they were incompetence. But when they continue to conceal information, I have grounds to be more suspicious and I have demanded this open public explanation, and a release of this information.

BURNETT: And what are the theories out there, is it the pilot deliberately did something to this plane. Obviously, you're familiar with that theory. But this -- the theory that I'm talking about, the motive behind it is you, that you were removed from the political arena, he was big supporter of yours and that he brought this plane down in protest.

Do you believe that could be true?

IBRAHIM: All right. Millions of Malaysians are disgusted with the manner, the media, you know, castrated (ph), the judiciary has been used by the government to punish opposition leaders. It's not me. There are five, six members of parliament in the room to be punished or imprisoned or to be denied their seat.

People -- there's fraud in the election, in the electoral process. We won 52 percent of the popular vote. I mean, it's not a question of people having motive. I mean, people disgruntled.

You take any cab or taxi in Kuala Lumpur, most of them are disgusted with the government. But they don't hijack taxis.

Similarly with the plane. I'm not denying the fact that I know him. He's a man who has strong passion for democracy, for rule of law.

BURNETT: We're talking about the pilot here.

IBRAHIM: Yes, the pilot, Zaharie. Zaharie, the pilot -- It's true. I've had discussions with him. He's also related to my daughter-in- law.

I'm not denying this. I have no problem with that. But then there's no shred of evidence to suggest there's a motive. We can't therefore cast aspirations and condemn an innocent man. I've gone through that.

I'm now sentenced five years of imprisonment pending appeal. I understand that. I don't think other Malaysians should have to endure this injustice.

BURNETT: What can you tell us about the pilot? You obviously know him. You know and he was supporter of yours. You've had time to talk to him.

What can you tell people around the world -- you are so -- everyone wants to know about this man who was at the helm.

IBRAHIM: This is a senior pilot and you ask the Malaysian Airlines, impeccable credentials and track record, a great professional. That's why in many of our party meetings, people naturally turned to him. He's a very senior pilot, a very great professional. We know him.

I've discussed with him. He was very clear in his position against the fraud in the last elections and known to be very disgusted with the manner, the court of appeal, the judiciary being used, ignoring facts and law just to punish me and sentence me to five years imprisonment.

But he's also great family person. And our party, our position is totally against violence, particulars of violence or terrorism. We've taken a strong stance. We believe in rule of law and constitutional change. So, I think his only crime is to support democratic reforms.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: That's a pretty incredible conversation -- Richard Quest is here with me -- with the opposition leader. Obviously, he's been at the center of this conversation since the beginning. Look, the member of the Malaysian government tweeted, "While Malaysian government and international partners are spending every minute finding MH370, Anwar Ibrahim is after political gains. I mean, this is a part of the narrative.

QUEST: It is. But it's well and truly into the domestic, political sewer of Malaysia. The relationship between the former Prime Minister Mahathir, and Ibrahim. Ibrahim goes to prison for years because of allegations which he's always denied. Then, you get a set of court cases.

So, you're watching Malaysia's dirty linen being washed. When he says that, you ask the question is it incompetence or do they know more? They know, he says.

BURNETT: Right. He said first I thought it was incompetence and now I am more suspicious. They know more.

QUEST: They know more. That is a fairly -- even for a political rival to say that. Ibrahim is a very bright man and very respected in many quarters.

BURNETT: What he's saying is echoing what Sarah Bajc, partner of Philip Wood, the passenger on the plane said earlier.

QUEST: Well, I think Ibrahim has to be taken a great degree of seriousness. It's because he's been on the inside. He was the defense minister. He was the deputy prime minister. He did spend the money on the radar system.

He knows how the system works. He'll also be aware of the political cost to him or gain of making this accusation.

BURNETT: The accusation and being wrong.

You've been following this for four weeks. You love planes, you know everything about planes. What do you think when you consider all the evidence?

QUEST: All right. I did the first major plane crash, if you like, I did was Lockerbie in 1988. I've done the TWA. I've done all the others that have come in the 25 years I've been covering aviation.

I've never seen anything of this magnitude where there isn't a shred of evidence or proof. And not only that, that which is there, Erin, is so tenuous and extremes of science that we're having to question it. That's why I say a month off, it is -- I mean, also we need to wait now for the first report.

Let's have a report now, a statement of facts.

BURNETT: All right. Richard Quest, thank you very much. It's amazing, four weeks ago tonight almost at this minute we got word this plane was missing. No one could have had any idea that we would be sitting here having these conversations tonight.

OUTFRONT next, an exclusive look at how flights are monitored in and around Malaysia. We're going to look exactly live at that moment. That flight has flown every night since then. What does the air space look? Would you have noticed it vanished?

We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Just four weeks ago to the minute that we broke into this program with the news that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared. Every night since, Malaysia airlines has flown the same route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The one thing that has changed is the flight number. It's now Flight 318.

We wanted to see exactly what the flight looked like on that night. So we tracked it using a popular Web site called flightradar24.com. The data you're seeing right now, this little yellow plane was taken just after 1:00 in the morning today at Malaysia, at the same moment that Flight 370 vanished.

As you can see, there are only a few dozen other flights in the region. We have Flight 370 in red as you can see. You'd think it would be impossible to not notice that one plane went rogue. It seems like every day brings a new search zone with little results as well.

Tom Foreman's OUTFRONT.

You've got the flight path how this could have gone missing. Also, Tom, because of all these questions these zones keep shifting.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they do. Erin, you look at an image like you have right there, and it seems so compelling and so easy.

But you have to see anytime bigger picture, too. These millions of square miles they're looking at right now and as you mentioned the shifting zones. Let me bring in a map and show you what's happened in just a short time here.

These are over the past 17, 18 days or so. Look at how they have changed those search areas. Time and time and time again, they've changed and changed. Not small changes, either, hundreds of miles. And the reason they've had to do this because so much has had to be based on conjecture, conjecture. Mathematics about what happened to this plane, Erin, because in the end, despite all of the math and readings they have and everything else, you can put this away and say what they really have is just what you started with, an airplane flying through the night that vanished -- Erin.

BURNETT: So, Tom, you know, we've been asking, how can you lose a plane? When you look at that map, help me understand the flight traffic and how they're monitoring it, what they actually see, you know, as you watch that plane.

We watched Flight 318 go tonight. Just look at what have gone four weeks ago tonight, and there was a point where Flight 370 as it was then called just disappeared off that map.

FOREMAN: And if everything's normal, that picture just looks normal. You don't pay much attention to it. But let's take the missing plane and put it into that environment.

And let's put it into that environment, not just for those hours but for the 24-hour cycle, because that's how people live and how they work. Every yellow dot on here, that's every flight in the world in a 24-hour period moving around.

And the Asian Pacific Region over here is one of the busiest areas in the world. And it's the most rapidly growing. It's believed that half of the airline and air flight growth over the next 20 years is all going to happen right over here. And much of it is going to involve planes like the 777.

So, against this backdrop, people who are working this way, day in and day out, week in and week out, that becomes a little easier to understand how one dot might have slipped away.

But it also explains why it's so important to figure out what happened, because an awful lot of future flights need to know what happened with this one as that area continues to grow with all that air traffic -- Erin.

BURNETT: All right. Tom Foreman, thank you very much.

And on that map, just right over the coast of Malaysia, as I was showing you earlier, the big question tonight is, how could one plane when there were only a few in that space, how could that one plane have gone missing with the sophisticated radar system and the military and they didn't notice. We are going to keep asking the questions.

Thanks for watching. Anderson's next.