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Erin Burnett Outfront

Ocean Shield Scans Northern End Of Search Area; Searchers Race To Verify Pings Heard By Locator; Officials Resume Search For Malaysia Airlines Flight 370; Oscar Pistorius on the Stand

Aired April 08, 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: Time and optimism are fading fast. Searches at this hour racing to reconfirm pings that could be from Flight 370's black boxes. The airplanes are now taking off to search. A live update from the team in a moment.

Plus, the man who made the pinger everyone is trying to find. Does he think investigators are zeroing in on the black boxes or not?

And Oscar Pistorius today in his own words, what he says he was thinking the night he killed his girlfriend. Let's go OUTFRONT.

Good evening, everyone. I'm Erin Burnett. OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. The air search just resuming at this hour. Officials, though, are desperate. The underwater search has been continuing around the clock. So far, though, nothing. Today, Australia's "Ocean Shield," the ship that heard pings over the weekend is at the northern end of the defined search area.

And at the south, the Chinese ship, Haixun 01, which also believes it heard pings over the weekend, which by definition would be unrelated because they're hundreds of miles apart. The British ship, "HMS Echo" is joining the Haixum 01 at the southern end of the search. It's been two days since searchers on the "Ocean Shield" heard sounds they believe began at the north came from the plane's black boxes.

They though have not been able to reacquire those pings. They have heard nothing and they have found nothing. And time is fading fast. We're on day 33 now of the search. Black boxes would have to be incredibly resilient to be working at a very audible level at this point. We've seen the search area shift, expand so many times. Look at this map. Just look at this map.

Now, you might say it's a miracle given that it could have been within thousand -- many, many thousands of miles where this plane could have been, that this is all relative to that narrow. But this is of course thousands of miles of shifting. Will the search area move again?

Matthew Chance is in Perth tonight. Matthew, what's the very latest as you're there? They're getting ready to go out and search. And I know, of course, the planes are leaving from the base behind where you are now. MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they're going to start leaving within the next few minutes apparently, Erin. The very latest is we've had a media release from the Australian-led search effort, which is a multinational effort, of course. And they have given us a few details. They're saying that -- excuse me, the search area has been narrowed just slightly over the course of the past 24 hours by a thousand square miles

It's now down to 29,000 square miles, which of course is still a vast area. We've been told that the focus of the efforts at the moment under the surface of the Indian Ocean are those two areas that you mentioned where the "Ocean Shield," the Australian vessel is using equipment borrowed from the U.S. Navy to try and recapture the pings that they recorded a few days ago.

Also in the south of that area, the Chinese vessels there accompanied by the "HMS Echo," a British warship, which is designed to map the ocean floor as well, trying to find what is happening there as well. Neither site has turned up anything for the past several days. And that's of particular concern because as you mentioned, time is running out.

The battery life on those pingers is -- the shelf life is something around 30 days. It's been 33 days now. So the Australians who are leading this mission, very aware that this window of opportunity to locate the pingers is closing. It may have already closed. But what they say at the moment is that they're doing everything they can.

They're throwing all their assets at this window of opportunity to try and take any opportunity there is out there to find these pingers. When it closes, if it closes, it's going to take much, much longer to locate this plane.

BURNETT: All right, thank you very much, Matthew Chance reporting live from Perth. And I want to emphasize Matthew's point. One of the big concerns here is that if a black box were dying, it doesn't die like a light switch. It doesn't turn off. It dies more like a flashlight. It gets lighter and lighter and lighter. The sounds get softer and softer and softer.

So it would be rather remarkable that the last 13 minutes of the very softest sound was the 13 minutes heard by the "Ocean Shield." A big question we're going to be talking about later with the manufacturer of that pinger on this program tonight.

Joining me on the phone is Kevin McEvoy, the air component commander of the Joint Forces Headquarters. He is with the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Good to have you with us, Commander, appreciate you taking the time. The air search obviously just getting under way in Perth where Matthew Chance is reporting. Water search, though, nonstop around the clock. Have they found anything?

KEVIN MCEVOY, AIR COMPONENT COMMANDER, JOINT FORCES HEADQUARTERS (via telephone): Yes, good evening, Erin. We've got an aircraft available, getting airborne at around 3 a.m. time. It will be transiting out to an area around 1200 nautical miles. And it will remain in the search around for around about three hours. Yesterday flights didn't find anything significant in terms of debris. So we're hopeful again today. But it's just another day, as you said, day 33 of another big effort.

BURNETT: And let me ask you, sir. I'm just curious. There have been some reports about the pings and where they're looking. Obviously, when you look at where the ships are positioned, one at the northern end where the Australians heard the ping and one at the southern end where the Chinese heard the ping, obviously those are few hundred miles apart. Have they given up on the Chinese-reported pings?

MCEVOY: I think that the most recent ping through the Australian vessel, the "Ocean Shield" is where the main focus is going on. In terms of the air search, we're looking in a slightly different area because we're looking for debris on the surface. So the surface vessel search and the air search will probably be in slightly different areas.

BURNETT: When you say slightly different, are you -- is that sort of where you would have expected there to be drift from where that pinger is located or are you actually looking in a different area that would imply if the plane went down, it went down somewhere not related to where that ping is?

MCEVOY: The surface vessels that are searching in terms of the black box and the pings will be looking in a distinct area.

BURNETT: Right.

MCEVOY: The area we're focusing on today is based on ocean modelling and drift markers, we dropped those several days ago. And it's actually showing that the currents in the area are not moving as much as we thought. So the separation of those two areas is not unusual.

BURNETT: Right. I understood your point. My colleague, Richard Quest, wanted to ask a question, Commander.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Commander, Richard here. Help me if you can, why do you think, what is the prevailing thinking within the military on why no debris has been found so far because ultimately, it really does come down to one of two things, doesn't it? Either you're in the wrong area or it's not there and it's all gone down. What is the thinking?

MCEVOY: Our job in terms of the military coordination is not look in terms of the investigation itself. We'll leave that up to the investigation authorities. In terms of the search area that is being coordinated, we're looking in the area of most likely based on the evidence we have available to us for that search area. And likewise for the surface vessels and the submarine in the area that are looking for the ping. So it's credible evidence based in a combination of ocean modelling, drift, and all of the information that we have available to us.

BURNETT: We're looking at about 20 original -- 20 search areas over the past several weeks, commander. Are you feeling less optimistic? Yesterday, I was talking to the U.S. Navy, and they said on the show, look, we haven't reacquired the signal. This is the most promising development we had, this possible ping, but they were losing optimism. Are you?

MCEVOY: Well, I think that earlier on, one of the Australian authorities, the vice chief of defense force noted that it was like looking for a needle in a haystack, but at that stage we didn't even know which haystack. I think we've got a much clearer picture around the areas we need to concentrate on. And those will be the areas that will be associated with both the search on the surface and the debris search by aircraft today.

BURNETT: All right, thank you very much, Commander. We appreciate your taking the time. Commander McEvoy as we said with the Royal New Zealand Air Force. And Richard Quest, as you just saw is with me. Here is the question. As you just raised the point, there has been no evidence at all. Obviously, there is all kinds of satellite, but there has been no physical evidence. This plane may not be there.

QUEST: The only evidence are the pings. The satellite data is, you know, corroborative if you like. That's circumstantial evidence, I beg your pardon. You have the satellite data which is circumstantial. And now you've got the pings, which is corroborative, but they can't get it again.

BURNETT: Right.

QUEST: Now just bring up that map again of the search.

BURNETT: The 20 some odd. I tried to count them quickly, yes.

QUEST: And you start to see the enormous nature. They started right down in the south at the beginning and that was based on the satellite data. But it's this constant refining of that data that brings it up to the top area. And you have to say this is a miracle of science that they've got this far. But you also have to say they are in this now for plan b, c, and d.

BURNETT: And a miracle of science, of course, if it's there, which I know everything at this point that's what they're saying, but we have no evidence. So Richard, thank you very much. Richard is going to be with me later on because we're going to be talking to the man who made that black box. And talk about this question, again, it's not like a light switch. So you heard it and then you didn't hear it. That's a big problem, possibly.

Plus, the partner of an American Flight 370. Why she doesn't believe what investigators are saying. And still the fact that there is no debris. What does that say about what happened to the plane?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Breaking news in the hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Right now, planes are taking off from Perth to try to verify to look for debris, and ships are look to verify pinging sounds they say could be from the plane's missing black boxes. As many as 15 planes are about to be taking off. Fourteen ships now scouring the Southern Indian Ocean.

Meanwhile, family and friends of those on board are still waiting for an answer on what happened to their loved ones. That includes Sarah Bajc. Our viewers now who have been watching our coverage of this now know Sarah, her partner, Philip Wood, was a partner on Flight 370 coming home.

Sarah joins me now from Beijing. Sarah, obviously, there has been these reports that they picked up pings. They have been unable to reconfirm or reverify those pings they picked up this weekend. Do you think this could be the plane?

SARAH BAJC, PARTNER OF PHILIP WOOD, AMERICAN ON FLIGHT 370: It could be. I mean, we still don't know anything that we didn't know a month ago. But I think the general perception amongst the families is that the timing of these pings is awfully coincidental with the batteries wearing out. So all of us pretty well agree until there is the bulk of the plane and the bulk of the bodies discovered and a black box intact, we won't believe that it is final evidence.

BURNETT: And you've been talking to a lot of the families, I know, and taking a leadership role in terms of organizing them because you don't feel you've been given honestly, a full and honest answer, right, about what they know?

BAJC: Yes, absolutely. So there is a group of Malaysian families who have been organizing themselves very effectively. And they have invited me and one of the gentlemen who is organizing the Chinese families to cooperate as well. So we can have three independent efforts, but we're all coordinating together. And the focus will be on asking these questions that we're just not getting answer for.

BURNETT: Sarah, you and have I spoken a few times. And last week you said you believed the plane was still intact. That was the specific word you used which obviously could mean a lot of things. But what leads you to believe that, and do you still believe that?

BAJC: I still believe it because there isn't any evidence to the contrary. And actually, most of the circumstantial evidence I believe points towards an abduction of this plane. I don't know why and I don't know by who. But I'm convinced that that plane was taken by somebody.

BURNETT: And when we talk about that scenario, I mean, as of now, as you know, investigators, at least what they have told us and what they have told the families, they haven't been able to clear the captain, the copilot or the flight crew. They have cleared all the passengers from any kind of suspicion. Do you think that when you talk about the plane being abducted and taken, that someone on board, a pilot, crewmember was responsible?

BAJC: I don't think the authorities have given us much confidence in their investigative skills so far. So I wouldn't consider all the passengers cleared, first of all, and I don't necessarily think that anybody from the crew was involved. They could be. We just don't know. It could be that every single person on that plane is an innocent victim in this, and it was a military action of some country instead. We honestly just don't know anything.

BURNETT: That's a fair point. I mean, and Sarah, you've been talking about sort of your, you know, your nightmares at night about what might have happened to Philip, the questions you have. I mean, how you dealing with the possibility that this plane may not be found, that there may not be an answer?

BAJC: Well, that's the scariest option of all, because I think if you're sure someone has died, you can grieve properly and you can move on. But I'm not willing to move on. I want to fight to find him in whatever form that ends up being. And I think most of the families feel the same way. So we really need to push to resolution from an emotional health perspective. But beyond that, as a world, we have to push for resolution. I mean, this is a really scary thing that happened. A plane, a giant plane filled with people was just taken. That could happen again if it's happened once.

BURNETT: And you talk about emotionally the need to know. You've been writing notes to Philip on your Facebook page. I know, you were kind enough to let us share one of them with our viewers last week. You wrote another one yesterday saying the week in KL, Kuala Lumpur was so hard. People are giving up. Please help me convince them we must keep trying to find you, just a small sign? I love you. How do you remain so hopeful? It's incredible.

BAJC: I think love provides a lot of strength to do things that we might not be able to do otherwise. And you know, for two and a half years, Philip and I have had constant communication. Not just daily, sometimes hourly. I know that sounds a little weird. But it's part of our relationship. And I feel an ongoing need to communicate with him. And I keep hoping that even though they can't communicate with us, somehow, maybe they're allowed to see media of some sort and that those messages can provide some comfort to Philip and to the other families as well.

BURNETT: And so that's part of the reason why you choose to even to talk to me and to talk to us, in the hope that maybe, maybe it might provide solace to him.

BAJC: Yes. It might provide solace to him, and it might urge some bystander who has been keeping their mouth quiet to come forward with something. I think this will be solved through human intelligence and intervention of good people.

BURNETT: Sarah, thank you again for talking. I really appreciate it. Sarah Bajc, as all of you know, her partner Philip Wood was on that plane.

Well, next, if the wreckage is found, what will it tell us? How every piece of debris would provide a crucial clue to what happened to those questions that Sarah has.

And Oscar Pistorius took the stand in the trial for his girlfriend's murder.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The door open and I sat over Reeva and I cried. She wasn't breathing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Breaking news coverage for the search for Malaysia Airlines flight 370 continues at this hour. Planes are now taking to the skies, officials searching for any sign of the missing plane both by air and of course by sea where they are using those pinger locators which have failed to reacquire ping transmissions first heard over the weekend.

Meanwhile, questioning family and friends of the crew and pilots haven't led to any breakthroughs in terms of whether a human was responsible, and if so, why. It might be debris that ends up holding the answers to who or what took this plane so off course.

Stephanie Elam is OUTFRONT from the USC aviation accident lab.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When you look at how a plane wreckage, the condition it's in, it gives you clues about what may have happened.

ANTHONY THOMAS, DIRECTOR, USC AVIATION SAFETY AND SECURITY PROGRAM: In fact, Stephanie, in this case, the primary energy of this wreckage was absorbed by the by the right front cockpit. But it's important to know this aircraft was traveling very slowly in comparison to a regular jet and cruise flight.

This was only going about 100 knots, 110 knots. This aircraft is a 10,000 pound aircraft. It has two jet engines just like the Malaysian aircraft. But in fact it's 10,000 pounds versus the 777 which was 600,000 pounds, 60 times larger. So the wreckage field and the amount of wreckage would be 60 times greater.

ELAM: If it broke up, that debris field on the bottom of the sea floor would be massive.

THOMAS: You're absolutely right.

ELAM: So this is the wreckage of a plane that had a fire that began in flight, correct?

THOMAS: Yes, it is. And this is the pinger that would equip this type of aircraft. In fact, this aircraft has one in the tail section. Its technical name is ELT, emergency locator transmitter. It is activated by shock. The transmitter or the ELT, the pinger that we're talking about in Malaysian 370 is activated by water. Two different types of pinger, two different kinds of sound or radio propagation.

ELAM: But the idea of basically to help locate where this plane, where this wreckage is if something were to happen? THOMAS: Absolutely.

ELAM: So this wing here, this is a wing that crashed into the water. And how do you know that?

THOMAS: Well, we know that because it was recovered from the water. But what is important to us here is tracing the front leading edge of this right wing. And, in fact, if you look at it, there is deformation. It looks like it's dented inward. It looks like it struck some object. But in fact this wing hit the water, the water being a very, very hard surface when you hit it fast. And this is hydraulic deformation of the leading edge of the wing.

ELAM: So if you're talking about a 777 hitting the water, it would be immensely more noticeable?

THOMAS: The energy that is transferred to the wing would be -- is in proportion to the speed. And that 777 would be moving at a much higher weed speed than this aircraft here. So therefore the energy would be greater.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: I mean, it's pretty interesting, Stephanie. So let's just say they don't find the black box. From what you've been able to figure out, would you be able to determine what brought a plane down if they never find a black box?

ELAM: Yes, Erin, it's basically going old school. Because what they used to do in the old days was just take as much as they can find of these pieces, amass as much as you can, and then see what clues the wreckage gives you. And that's what they would do if they're never able to find the black boxes in this missing 777. If they do find it, let's say it's at the bottom of the ocean and they're pulling it together, the more pieces they can find, the more that they're better able to get the picture.

But keep in mind with the currents the way they are, that one piece, that one linchpin that would tell us everything that led for a plane to go down may be lost forever. And so we still may not know the answer to that, Erin.

BURNETT: All right, Stephanie Elam, thank you very much.

And next, the man who made the pingers on flight 370, he is going to give you a live demonstration of how they work as we tackle this issue of how a ping could just suddenly go silent when that's not how a battery dies.

And then finding the debris field, why it all depends on how the plane may have hit the water.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Breaking news in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. The air search resuming right now. The underwater search, though, has turned less promising by the minute because searchers have not been able to reacquire the signals heard over the weekend which they believe, and pretty strongly a lot of them believed, came from the plane's black boxes.

Now I want to play for you exactly what they heard, because we have the man who made this black box, so-called black box, with us tonight. So let's play what they recorded over the weekend.

Joining me now Anish Patel, president of Dukane Seacom, the largest manufacturer of the pingers on the black boxes.

I want to make sure I emphasize pinger. I misspoke a second ago. Authorities believe it was one of his pingers on board Flight 370.

Also with me Richard Quest, Miles O'Brien and Van Gurley, who's a former -- Navy oceanographer.

All right. Anish, let me start with you. You've heard this audio tape and when you listen to it -- we can play it again for our viewers. Can you say definitively this is a pinger signal? Here it is again.

ANISH PATEL, PRESIDENT, DUKANE SEACOM: It definitely has the distinct sound, the one-second -- one pulse per second pulse rate that we want to look for, we want to listen for.

BURNETT: All right. So if it sounds like it's the right thing to you, let me ask you about this big question. Right? They found the signal over the weekend. A couple of days now they haven't been able to replicate it. And, you know, some say the batteries might have died in the meantime. But that's kind of amazing, isn't it? I mean, because those batteries on a pinger in a black box, it's not like turning off the light switch. It's more like a battery.

It dies a little bit over time, right? So it almost -- I mean, everything about this situation is fantastical. But it almost would seem defy reason that this tape was a pinger signal at the very -- they caught it at the very last moments before it fully died.

PATEL: Well, that would have to be pretty lucky. You're right. It's a lithium battery. They do die fairly quickly on the tail end. But there is margin in the battery. And as you get towards the tail end, you're going to see a decrease in the output, but it shouldn't die immediately unless they just caught it at the tail end. And that would just happen to be too lucky in my mind.

BURNETT: Right. It would seem to be too lucky. So how concerned are you then given their failure to reacquire it that it may not be a pinger signal? Because you just heard it, and said look, it sounds like it is. But then they haven't been able to require it? So are you open to the possibility that is not a pinger?

PATEL: It has to be something manmade if it isn't a pinger. It just sounds and looks -- the patterns look too much like a pinger to be anything else but. BURNETT: All right. So sounds like you're very confident. Now I know you have brought a ping with you very similar to the one believed to be on the flight.

PATEL: Sure.

BURNETT: Because -- as far as our knowledge, the one on the flight was yours. So show us how this works.

PATEL: Sure. Here is a pinger. We've talked about the water activated switch. I've got a little bit of water. It doesn't take much. All you have to do is -- let me turn the tester on. These are all made in our Sarasota facility. If you -- right away you can hear it pinging.

BURNETT: So all it has to do is just get a little bit -- a little bit wet on the end?

PATEL: Yes. And I pull it out, it stops, that quick.

BURNETT: And that sounded I think for our viewers who have been hearing it, that sounded well exactly like what we just played that they were picking up from deep under the ocean floor.

PATEL: Exactly. One pulse per second.

BURNETT: Richard, what do you make of this?

QUEST: It is fascinating the way the whole thing has moved forward. I want to ask Anish a question.

Sir, it's Richard Quest, if I may just ask you, I'm having real difficulty understanding the distances involved. Now bear with me. If the -- if the pinger can be reached by -- can be heard by, say, up to two miles and they heard it for two hours, surely, you're only talking about a field two -- you know, two miles in any direction from where they heard it. So why are we being told that it is still sort of 100, 150 square miles that we're talking about?

PATEL: It's a good question. I think you've got to take their word for it. They're the ones doing the trolling if you will of the device. To the layperson, it seems like simple math. But you've got the dimension of depth in the ocean, all the other topologies going on. So I'm going to leave it up to the experts and let them tell us what they're doing.

BURNETT: Well, Van, let me bring you in on that. What's your -- from the oceanography perspective, what's your view on answering that question? Because to us, it does seem look, you heard it for two hours. They say you can detect it within two miles. So you've got to go down and look for it now. And they're saying no way.

VAL GURLEY, FORMER NAVAL OCEANOGRAPHER: Well, I think there's two parts here. So first, the question that Richard asked is, how big an area we could possibly be dealing with if we never hear it again. You know, I'm an engineer by training. An oceanographer by training so I'm going to be really conservative.

So if the folks at Phoenix say their equipment works out to about two miles, let's say we double it and say it's four to five miles. And then say that this one track line that Ocean Shield was running was right on the edge of the detection envelope. So now we're looking at a circle of radius about five miles in my very conservative estimate. That -- that gives you an area of about 75 square miles.

But that is much, much smaller than anything we've been talking about since about Sunday. And I think that we're still -- we're now into an evolution that's, you know, weeks to a month to get the final answers, not the years that we were talking about last week.

BURNETT: So, Miles, do you think they'll be able to reacquire this again? Let's just start with that because it's been a couple of days. They haven't heard it again. Forget the miraculous nature of the fact that they would have to after all of this catch it in its last 13 minutes of life, which does seem to defy reason. But let's just assume they did. So we've got to assume they're never going to hear it again.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: That's the assumption we have to make. But that's -- given all the evidence we have, and also, let's not forget that this location matches that last communication with the Inmarsat satellite between the aircraft, this is -- this is a very solid lead. You got to stay there and work this out because of all that we have just talked about. So I -- you know, even if they don't get another ping, I'm reasonably optimistic this is in a reasonable time frame once they get that autonomous vehicle under there to paint the surface with sonar, and that wreckage will appear eventually. And not -- we're not talking years.

BURNETT: Van, how long do you think it will take? Obviously, the search team has been very, very cautious on this and said it could take weeks and months, even with the information they have for that autonomous vehicle to pick up any debris, if there is debris down there?

GURLEY: Well, the problem we're going to run into is from here on out, the operation will start going slower and slower, at least as we're watching it externally, because they have to be incredibly careful. So once they -- what they've announced is they're going to continue to drag the towed pinger locators through the area until there is absolutely no chance of the battery still being alive.

So there is several -- maybe up to a week still of that. If they don't understand the bottom real well, then they're probably going to bring the HMS Echo over and do a quick map of the ocean bottom from the surface. She is specially built to do that. That will take a couple of weeks. Then you'll get the Bluefin 21 in the water. And each one of those missions may be up to two days between launching it, mapping, and then bringing the data back to analyze it.

BURNETT: Incredible feat. All right. Well, let's just hit pause there, because I want to bring in one other element here. Because it's not just that searchers have been unable to detect any additional pings. Of course, there is still the blatantly obvious problem to all of us, which is that there has not been a single debris, a single life jacket, anything. And it's made it incredibly difficult for crews to determine where they should be looking and what they should be looking for.

Tom Foreman is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Malaysia Air 370 crashed into the sea. Authorities are not wavering on that. But how it hit could make a big difference in the debris field they are seeking.

If the plane cartwheeled in, like this hijacked Ethiopian jet in 1996, the destruction would be tremendous. How does that happen? One wing dips lower than the other and catches the water first. Still that does not necessarily create a wide debris field. For that a mid-air explosion is a more likely cause.

Investigators say when a fuel tank erupted on TWA 800 as it climbed to 14,000 feet leaving New York, the result was three separate debris fields and a tireless search to find all of the parts. Weiss says the same thing could be true if Malaysia Air exploded or caught on fire.

MARK WEISS, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Because that fire would have lasted for a bit of time in the cargo department, perhaps could have gone through the aircraft, and things would have come out. So you would have had more debris along the longer flight path.

FOREMAN: A hard-landing or crash into the water is no less destructive, but it may produce a smaller target for searchers. When that Air France jet fell into the Atlantic, the debris on the water surface spanned only a few miles. And on the ocean floor, the bulk of the plane covered just a few football fields.

And, of course, a soft landing remains a distant but real possibility. If the Malaysia Air flight landed like that U.S. Airways' plane on the Hudson River, it would have slipped under by now. And unless people were alive to scramble out with life rafts, there might be few clues it was ever there -- and only a small target far beneath the surface.

Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: So, Richard, here is the thing. Most any scenario ends up with pieces and debris somewhere, except for that kind of perfect landing on the surface, which would be incredibly difficult to pull off here.

QUEST: And even that you can argue as the plane went down, the pressure would crush and something --

(CROSSTALK)

BURNETT: Right. At some point when you go a few miles under, right, something would collapse.

QUEST: This is the most troubling aspect of the whole area in someone's sense because there is nothing to hang your hat on. They've got the -- they've got the pings. They've got the satellite, but there is no physical evidence. But they're going have to keep going regardless. And there are still those people who do believe it's merely a question of when the debris is found, not if.

BURNETT: All right. But if it's a question of when, Miles, is that another way of saying it's not where they're looking for it right now? They are scouring it. They have lots of planes. They have lots of ships. They -- they would have seen it, right?

O'BRIEN: You would think. I mean, that ditching scenario sticks in my mind a lot, though. I, you know, as a pilot, that's one of the things we think about a lot and talk about, and we train for. We don't do it obviously. But, you know, if the sea state were appropriate and you had a reasonably accomplished pilot, you could -- you could pull off a ditching. And that really would leave very little on the surface. So this assumption that there is debris, maybe that's not so. Wouldn't that be amazing?

BURNETT: I mean, it would be amazing. And Van, to Miles' point, I think he and Richard both agree there would be some debris, but not much. But then you get to the point well, we didn't start looking here until a few weeks past, there was a cyclone. So literally would that put you in a position where the body of the plane is indeed where they're looking right now, but there may be never debris found until it washes up somewhere, if even then.

GURLEY: And I think that's most likely the scenario, unfortunately, we're looking at. There will be things that float, and things will eventually wash up on a shore somewhere. But given the amount of time and the weather patterns that have moved through there, I think the odds of finding any type of localized debris field on the ocean surface have already expired.

BURNETT: Is it possible, Richard? I mean, of course it's possible. But let's say what probable that we never find it at all?

QUEST: The plane?

BURNETT: Yes.

QUEST: I'm not going there. I'm absolutely not going there. I've said from day one this is --

BURNETT: You have said we're going to find it.

QUEST: This is not a question of if, it is a question of when.

BURNETT: Well, it was for Amelia Earhart, too.

QUEST: Different times, different search abilities.

BURNETT: Yes. QUEST: Does any one of the --

BURNETT: All I can say is someone just e-mailed me and said, I can track my iPhone anywhere in the world and you cannot find a 777. That is why the story remains so compelling to people. Oh, and I have to leave it with everyone shaking their head. Thank you. Sorry, Richard.

(LAUGHTER)

OUTFRONT next, more of our coverage of the search for Flight 370.

Plus, what Oscar Pistorius did in the moments after he gunned down his girlfriend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OSCAR PISTORIUS, DEFENDANT: I was crying out for the Lord to help me. I was crying out for Reeva. I was screaming.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Highly emotional crucial day in the Oscar Pistorius murder trial. Over the course of three and a half hours, the one-time Olympian testified about his relationship with Reeva Steenkamp, and the moment that in his words everything changed.

Robyn Curnow is OUTFRONT in Pretoria.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PISTORIUS: She was everything.

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Oscar Pistorius sobbing uncontrollably as he finally gave his version of what happened the night he shot and killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. His story has elected not to testify on camera.

PISTORIUS: That's the moment that everything changed. I thought that there was a burglar that was gaining entry into my home. The first thing that ran through my mind was that I needed to arm myself, that I needed to protect Reeva and I, that I needed to get my gun. I shouted for Reeva to get on the floor. I shouted for her to phone the police.

CURNOW: The testimony proving to be too much for Steenkamp's mother. She placed her head in her hands as Pistorius gave a dramatic account of the moment he entered the bathroom with his gun drawn and opened fire.

MCCORMICK: And then I heard a noise from inside the toilet. And -- that I perceived to be somebody coming out of the toilets. And before I knew it I had fired four shots at the door.

CURNOW: What followed, gut-wrenching sobs from Pistorius, he broke down, describing the moment he realized it was Reeva he had shot.

PISTORIUS: I flung the door open, I threw it open, and I sat over Reeva and I Cried. And I don't know how long -- I don't know how long --

CURNOW: Prosecutors say Pistorius shot Steenkamp early on Valentine's Day last year after an argument turned violent.

Also on the stand today, Pistorius insisted he and Steenkamp had a loving relationship. Over a thousand of text messages between the couple, the great majority appeared loving but four of them showed the couple got into a fight just before her death. Pistorius read some of the messages to the court.

PISTORIUS: You have picked me -- picked on me incessant reason, you've got that from Cape Town, and I understand that she was sick but it is nasty. I was not flirting with anyone today. I feel like that you suggested that and that you made a scene at the table and made us leave early. I'm scared of you sometimes.

CURNOW: Pistorius responding that he loved her even though he was not kind that night.

PISTORIUS: I was a bit upset. And I thought maybe that I had been a bit neglected all that violence. I think maybe I was just being sensitive. Maybe felt insecure or jealous.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: No matter how emotional he was in court the judge is going to expect him to come and finish his testimony. Not only is it his legal right but it is also his legal responsibility to put on record his version of events. And then of course, there is the cross examination.

Back to you, Erin.

BURNETT: Nearly a year ago, bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston marathon, Adrianne Haslet-Davis was just steps away from the second blast when shrapnel tore through her legs instead l and sever her left foot. It meant the end of her award-winning career as a ballroom dancer, but over the past year (INAUDIBLE) is in recovery. She's also agreed to film her everyday life in video diaries.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS, BOSTON MARATHON BOMBING SURVIVOR: Now I'm just going to go out into the real world and -- a world with bombs. And strangers and -- memories. That I don't know if I'm ready to face.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Took a lot of courage to do that, her videos are part of a new CNN documentary called "THE SURVIVOR DIARIES" hosted by Anderson Cooper. And it airs tonight at 10:00 Eastern. Adrian and Anderson join me now. And I know this was, as I said, courageous is probably not even the appropriate word to use to describe how difficult this must have been.

What was this pasture year like for you?

DAVIS: You know, for such a long time I would wake up in the morning and even after leaving the hospital, wake up in the morning and it wouldn't be until I started moving again, in those groggy, first minutes of the morning before realizing that I'm an amputee. And then everything happened. You would just forget and then for those few moments who would go through all of the agonizing heartache again just as if it had just happened.

I'm happy to report now that, you know, I'm becoming more and more adopted to it. I have a dream the other day of -- that I was an amputee. And that's a really good sign.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR, AC360: Really? That's interesting.

DAVIS: It's an incredible -- my therapist said that that is an incredible sign of self-acceptance.

BURNETT: And you did something together, the two of you.

COOPER: Yes. Yes.

BURNETT: A promise that you made as part of this.

COOPER: Yes, I made. When I first met Adrianne, it was just a couple of days after the bombing. She allowed us to come into her hospital room and -- that's when I first met her and first did an interview with Erin.

And Adrienne is, is not only a great dance, she's against instructor.

COOPER: I thought she was all drugged up and, like, wouldn't Remember. And I have said, you know, as soon as she started dancing again I would like to get a lesson because I'm a terrible dancer. Not actually --

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: Not actually thinking that she would follow through. So we -- and you it in the documentary.

DAVIS: Sheep and gotcha.

COOPER: Yes. We had our dance lesson.

DAVIS: We have a little bit yes.

COOPER: And I'm a terrible dancer and Adrienne was so lovely, and sweet and (INAUDIBLE). Yes.

BURNETT: Well, I really can't wait to see this. I've seen just a little clips . I know it is going to be incredible and I know for you, it was difficult, bit so many people get inspired by this.

COOPER: Yes.

BURNETT: The courage that it took that you did.

COOPER: She's incredibly inspiring.

DAVIS: Thank you.

BURNETT: We're looking forward to seeing --

(CROSSTALK)

DAVIS: I like --

(LAUGHTER)

BURNETT: I can't wait to see that part.

All right, thanks to both of you. And be sure to watch "THE SURVIVOR DIARIES," tonight at 10:00 Eastern, right here on CNN.

And OUTFRONT next, the sounds of the pings, are they from Flight 370 or not? This is a pretty incredible analysis and it is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: If you have been following the search for Flight 370 as closely as we have you have learned more than you ever expected about a lot of things, including pings.

Jeanne Moos is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Remember the days when we pretended to listen to the sea in a sea shell?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard the ocean.

MOOS: But these days, we're listening to the sea with hydrophones.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We can already hear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right, so this is we're actually picking up the pings that's released by an actual pinger just like the one that's on the plane.

MOOS: And devices called Towed Pinger Locators --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is what a ping sounds like.

MOOS (on camera): Lately we're hearing about high frequency pings with ever-increasing frequency.

BURNETT: The pings detected -- CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Pinging.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pinging noise.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pinger locaters.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This pinger --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Acoustic signals --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No new ping detected.

MOOS: Until we got flooded with talk of acoustic events, a ping was something a subset on the "Hunt for Red October."

SEAN CONNERY, "THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER': One ping only please.

MOOS: Now we're becoming experts on the signals sent from black box. It makes a ticking sound like a metronome. And --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just with a moist paper towel listen to it activate right away.

MARY SCHIAVO, FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION: And it is not the sound of marine life unless they happen to be wearing watches.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is not a whale with a wrist watch.

MOOS: Although there is a species of dolphins that sounds somewhat similar, pleasant ocean sounds like waves. Or underwater diving have been drowned out by chirps. Listen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the thing of the moment right now, isn't it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This tiny little thing looks like a salt shaker.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, NEW DAY: The sound is becoming the tell-tale heart.

MOOS: But the heartbeat is failing.

(On camera): We've come a long way from the sea shell to the hydrophone, When this is all over, can't we go back?

(Voice-over): Back to the days of throwing for fish OUTFRONT. Rather than trolling. Or a plane.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: And tomorrow on OUTFRONT, we're going to be talking to Robert Ballard. He's the man who discovered the titanic miles under the ground -- under water. Does he think flight 370 will be found? Perhaps the best person in the world to ask that question, too, he will be our guest tomorrow on OUTFRONT at 7:00 Eastern.

Thanks so much as always for joining us. "ANDERSON COOPER 360" starts right now.