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Erin Burnett Outfront

U.S. Official Confident Signals Are From Black Boxes; No Ping Detections Over Past 24 Hours; U.S. Official Confident Pings Are From Flight 370

Aired April 11, 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. An American official tells OUTFRONT, he is confident the pings they have been hearing are from 370's missing black box.

Plus, new information in the investigation into the flight, who investigators are zeroing in on tonight, and more mixed messages from the officials in charge of the search and criminal probe. What is the truth? Let's go OUTFRONT.

Good evening, everyone. I'm Erin Burnett. And OUTFRONT on this Friday night, we begin with the breaking news, an American Naval Commander William Marks tells me he is confident the pings detected in the Indian Ocean come from the black boxes of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. He is very specific in that, and he joins Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott in his certainty.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY ABBOTT, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: We have very much narrowed down the search area, and we are very confident that the signals that we are detecting are from the black box on MH370.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: We're going to get to my interview with Commander William Marks in just a moment.

First though, I want to go to Michael Holmes in Perth, Australia. Michael, this is a growing sense that they're getting close to finding this black box. What is the scene there this morning as they're starting the search there again?

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, just after dawn here, Erin, on a beautiful Perth day and off the coast, the ships have been trawling all night, and continue to now, looking for more pings from the flight data recorders. The aircraft are heading out to join them. They'll be looking for wreckage on the surface. It is day 36 of this search. Five weeks, hard to believe, but nothing has been found so far.

But you heard there the confidence is there that something will be found on or below the surface. Now, the plan at the moment is to continue that search, hope to hear even more pings and narrow the search area down to even further that, of course, becoming less and less likely with those pinger batteries fading, even by the hour.

Of course, important to remember, even if say the wreckage or the data recorders were located even today, the recovery phase has a whole new set of challenges, getting the right vehicles in place and underwater, and dealing with an ocean floor covered in perhaps meters of silt, which can bury debris or very easily hide a data recorder that is no longer pinging -- Erin.

BURNETT: Thank you very much. And joining me now on the phone is Navy Commander William Marks of the U.S. 7th Fleet. He is on board the USS Blue Ridge, which is leading the American search effort for Flight 370. Commander, good to talk to you this Saturday morning. How are you focussing the search today?

COMMANDER WILLIAM MARKS, ABOARD THE USS BLUE RIDGE (via telephone): We're doing well out here in the pacific. And as each day goes on, as the search area is smaller and smaller, especially since even a week ago, we're pretty optimistic here. So I do want to stress we are still searching with our TPL, the towed pinger locator. We do want to maximize the use of that.

So as long as we can use the TPL to listen in, see if we can get a better picture on that black box, we're going to use it. And we'll go as long as we can until we think the batteries are dead on those things. The important point to remember is before we get the Bluefin and side scan sonar, we want to maximize the use of the TPL. So that's what we're doing today.

BURNETT: And the man who made the pinger on this plane told me that, you know, it's only got another couple of days until the battery is dead for sure, maybe three or four at the out. The last ping that I know searchers really think came from a black box is Tuesday. You're now coming into Saturday. How long are you going to keep looking if you don't hear a ping before you decide to go to the next step, to put that Bluefin the water?

MARKS: Yes, that's a great question and that's certainly a decision point. But I really want to stress how critical it is to not put the Bluefin 21 in sooner than we need to. Just using the TPL is a slow and deliberate process. So it drags through the water.

And it listens in for those pings from a black box, and that's a pretty slow process. We can tow it about as quickly as a person walks. Well, once you get the Bluefin in there, it's actually taking a picture of the bottom of the ocean floor using sonar and cameras.

So imagine walking but then every feet stopping to take a picture of the ground. So that is a much slower, more deliberate, methodical process. Once that starts, we're in it for a good chunk of time. So we really don't want to start that until we have to.

BURNETT: Right.

MARKS: And anything we can do to even narrow this sector down even a little bit will be hugely beneficial for using the Bluefin. BURNETT: Now, Commander, Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott came out and said directly, look, he is confident that what you have heard so far is a black box from this plane. Do you share that view?

MARKS: Yes, I do. For a couple of reasons. One is it was a -- we are detecting very continuous pings coming through in a manner consistent with exactly what you would expect from a black box. We've ruled out there was anything unnatural or anything from commercial shipping or anything like that.

And then the fact that we've had four verifiable hits on these is optimistic. Now, they were all quite in the same frequency range and there is a good deal of distance between those 10 or 15 kilometers.

But still, you know, sound is a unique property here in water and it could easily travel that far. So I agree with the prime minister. We are optimistic.

BURNETT: All right, Commander, thank you. Good luck. We'll talk to you again soon.

MARKS: Certainly.

BURNETT: And I want to bring in our own Richard Quest. All right, so we have the breaking news here. The commander is now saying, look, yes, I'm confident this is it. We have checked any other sources, not just natural source, but whether it was a box from a commercial ship? No. This is it.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

BURNETT: Yes.

QUEST: Well, we had this from Angus Houston and the Australians --

BURNETT: The Australians have been saying if everyone was saying did he get ahead of himself. Did he get too far? The Americans are now agreeing.

QUEST: The Australian string of experts said credible, stable, 1.106, the right frequency. Their exact word, it is consistent with a flight data recorder.

BURNETT: So are they going to be able to get it out? That is the bottom line.

QUEST: Let us not confuse what Tony Abbott said with what he's now got to do. He said he is very confident that it's a black box. Right. We now know that. He didn't say how, you know, we know where it is. He did say it's within a certain so many kilometers or within some kilometers.

BURNETT: Right.

QUEST: That's optimistic. That might have been a stretch further than others are prepared to go. But we've always known the difficult bit is now going to be getting down this and taking that search area that Houston has got smaller and smaller in looking for it.

BURNETT: And of course figuring out exactly what happened here which is what we're going to be talking about next. We have continuing coverage of the breaking news tonight. Authorities now focusing on the pilots and the crew. You've known that a bit. But they've changed the tone a bit. And a man who knows the pilots and the crew are going to join our conversation next.

Plus, official giving contradicting information and misestimates out of Malaysia on this. Who is to blame?

And an exclusive look at the cutting edge tech being used to find MH 370.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: We're following the breaking news tonight. An American official telling me he is confident the pings detected are from Flight 370. The first Americans have said that. Meanwhile, investigators are narrowing their focus tonight. It's been 36 days since the jet vanished. Officials still have not yet cleared the captain, the co- pilot or the flight crew.

Joe Johns is OUTFRONT in Kuala Lumpur. He is covering the details in the investigation for us tonight. Joe, now police say they're questioning more people who may be linked to the case. So what have you learned about that?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erin, statements have been taken from over 205 people and we know from speaking with the home minister earlier this week a little more who they have been talking to, including families of the pilots, families of the crew, the staff of Malaysia Airlines, crowd handlers.

We also know they're talking to caterers, almost anybody who came into contact with that plane, the work is continuing. Last week the number of people interviewed was about 170. So since then, we can extrapolate from that they have interviewed an additional 35 people -- Erin.

BURNETT: Joe, it's also confusing here. Last week Malaysian police said look, all 227 passengers have been cleared from suspicion, but they were still looking at the captain and the crew. Today the acting transportation minister, a colorful character told sky news, quote, "Everyone on board remains under suspicion." So they're saying two totally different things.

JOHNS: Right. True. There have been several examples of mixed messages. The transportation minister suggested they haven't ruled anybody out. However, the home minister just said the other day that they are not focusing on family members of the passengers.

I think it's all a reflection of the sort of sprawling investigation we have. And frankly, more facts are really needed to refine where this investigation goes from here. They're hoping finding the black boxes will actually do that -- Erin. BURNETT: All right, thank you very much, Joe, reporting live from Kuala Lumpur. We're going to be joined in just a moment by a man who knew the pilot as well as members of the flight crew on this plane. Obviously crucial perspective there.

Richard Quest is also with me along with our aviation analyst, Jeff Wise. At least what we know about how this plane was taken off course we have known one thing that then becomes another thing. So what we know may not be what happened. Caveat for everybody watching. But what we know right now, who could be responsible for this at this point besides one of the pilots?

JEFF WISE, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, the way that that plane was taken off course and the way that it was subsequently flown way point to way point, apparently deviating in such a way that it would avoid radar seems to have been very clever, very purposely flown with a lot of savvy and sophistication with the way planes are flown and the way airline operations are conducted.

Perhaps there was someone else on board who was able to fly a plane in that kind of way. We don't know. Apparently, all these passengers have been cleared. So suspicion, again, falls on the pilot.

BURNETT: Two completely opposing things from the Malaysian government. I want to bring in Ismail Nasaruddin. He is joining me from Kuala Lumpur, the president of Malaysia's National Union of Flight Attendants. He worked with Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah and members of Flight 370's crew.

Good to have you with us, Ismael. I appreciate you taking the time. What can you tell us about anyone you knew in terms of the crew and the pilots on this plane, and what they were like as the investigation still seems to focus on those individuals?

ISMAIL NASARUDDIN, WORKED WITH FLIGHT 370 CAPTAIN AND CREW: Yes, hi, Erin. Basically, I think we are currently right now looking at some family members and also the crew who we have spoken to. And the last time that I spoke to them was about a couple of days ago. And basically, I've worked with some of the crewmembers before.

So I know Captain Zaharie also because we were flying colleagues before. And we did a couple of flights. And basically, also some of the flight attendants who naturally work with us together on several flights.

BURNETT: Do you think, Ismail, that any of these people could have been responsible? Obviously people are talking about the captain simply because he was the captain. And a lot of focus has gone there. There has been no evidence at this point indicating he was involved. You know him. What would you say?

NASARUDDIN: Captain Zaharie as I know and the rest of our crewmembers, we used to work together. And I believe that Captain Zaharie is a very simple guy. He is very professional during his work and being a commander, he always takes charge of his flight. I don't see any problems working with him, neither any one of our crewmembers.

We've never had any problems working with anybody so far. And last couple of years that I flew with him and, you know, we've spoken a few things. But it's kind of that we see each other and we talk about normal things and that's about it, you know. Nothing strange about anything.

BURNETT: Interesting you say he is a simple guy. What do you think about the new rules that have been imposed? Because there was a report that there are new rules after that incident that would not allow anybody to be alone in the cockpit. And that was a change in rules. Some people said well, is that because there is speculation that somebody in the cockpit was responsible for what happened to this plane. What is your response to that?

NASARUDDIN: Yes, I think it's a natural thing because every airline has got security measures that is undertaken. And basically, what I see is that when the airline impose security measures where crewmembers are supposedly to become barriers to the cockpit. So, you know, anybody who wants to come in, they have got to go through the flight attendants.

And the flight attendants will get the response from the pilots and the pilots will give the go ahead. So that's about it. You know, basically, that's about what we see. And it's kind of natural right now that they heighten up the security.

And what we are just saying is I think it's good for everybody to discuss more measures than just to come out with a simple policy, which we look at it in that way.

BURNETT: And Richard, what do you make about what Ismail is just saying here, that Captain Zaharie Shah is a simple man.

QUEST: It's what we've heard all along that he was good man, he was a well-liked man. He was a man who was respected enormously.

BURNETT: Yes.

QUEST: May I ask a quick question?

BURNETT: Yes, please. Ismail, this is Richard.

QUEST: Hi, it's Richard Quest in New York. Quick question. The morale now for your colleagues Malaysia Airlines, bearing in mind the enormous weight of this investigation and the stress of it all?

NASARUDDIN: Yes, I think everybody is, you know, a little bit edgy and also a little bit curious about what is going on. But people are talking about it. But that's kind of normal to me right now because we know that things not as what it's supposed to be. But we are just waiting and just hoping that things can come by and more answers will come in the next coming weeks.

BURNETT: Ismail, before you go, I know you said Captain Zaharie was a good man. You're saying he was a simple man. Do you know anything about anyone else on the crew that you could say anything about or about his co-pilot?

NASARUDDIN: Are you asking me about the co-pilot?

BURNETT: Yes.

NASARUDDIN: The co-pilot is a pretty young guy. I never flew with him before, but I flew with a lot of the other crewmembers. Not really with the co-pilot.

BURNETT: All right, well, Ismail, thank you very much for taking the time this morning. We really appreciate it. Thanks again.

And still to come, the next step in the search for missing Flight 370. We have an exclusive demonstration of how that's going to work. And the mistakes and missteps so far in this investigation. Why are there so many mixed messages?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Breaking news in the hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. We are just learning there have been no confirmed acoustic detects over the past 24 hours. It's significant because at most the black boxes only have a couple more days of battery life. They haven't heard from them in days.

However, a U.S. Naval commander is telling CNN tonight they are confident what they have heard is the black box from Flight 370. This is going to mean, though, that the technology that finds the boxes is going to be, well, going to have to go under water. It's going to be things like the Bluefin 21. They're going to be crucial.

Tonight Rosa Flores is OUTFRONT with a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I can just go forward.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This probe is the latest technology that could be used to find Flight MH370. Using side scan sonar, it searches for things that don't belong beneath the sea.

(on camera): What is side scan sonar?

BOB ANDERSON, PRESIDENT, OCEANSONAR: Well, side scan sonar is an acoustic technology that is based on reflections of sound rather than reflections of light.

FLORES (voice-over): The autonomous underwater vehicle, an AUV, is gathering information to create a map of the sea floor. This time, it's the bottom of a Massachusetts reservoir. But it could be the depths of the Indian Ocean.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The side scan consists of an electronics package which is inside the vehicle. It is basically a computer that processes the data to make the pulse and to bring back the pulse and configure it into an image. FLORES: It moves back and forth along the surface. But some AUVs can dive deep into the ocean. Sonar helps identify and find debris like this submerged car.

JEFF DEARRUDA, TECHNICIAN, OCEANSONAR: Once we identify the target, we did this cross pattern and then if we zoom in here. So we pull in that sonar file, went to that location and got a better high def image of that car.

FLORES: In the case of Flight 370, an AUV would face a number of obstacles that could stretch this entire process out for months or years. To get a real-time close-up image, this remotely operated vehicle, or ROV uses the map to visit the location.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's pretty choppy out here today. So the visibility is quite reduced.

FLORES (on camera): In the depth of the Indian Ocean, you would probably use sonar at first, I would imagine, if the water is very deep and very dark.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

FLORES: And then perhaps the camera?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Exactly.

FLORES (voice-over): Once it's there, it uses a camera and claws to pick up debris. Bringing critical evidence and hopefully answers to the surface. Rosa Flores, CNN, Fall River, Massachusetts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: And still to come, our breaking news coverage continues, an American official telling OUTFRONT, he is confident the pings are from Flight 370's black boxes. The first time an American has weighed in on this. How can he be so sure?

Plus, false starts and missteps have plagued this search from start to finish. Who is to blame?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: More of our breaking news coverage in the mystery of Flight 370. American Naval Commander William Marks tells me he is confident the pings detected in the Indian Ocean came from the black boxes of the missing Malaysia airliner. He also says he has ruled out many other sources for the pings, including any possible commercial shipping.

This comes as another day of searching is getting under way at the hour. It's been 36 days since the Malaysian airliner vanished, 239 onboard. Anger and frustration, it's hard to describe how horrible it must be for those families, but also for everyone trying to get answers given the mixed messages coming from officials investigating this story.

David Mattingly is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: With the world hanging on every word, leaders in charge of finding the missing 239 people aboard Flight 370 continue to have problems staying on the same page.

In China, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott makes the most encouraging statement yet.

TONY ABBOTT, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: We have very much narrowed down the search area, and we are very confident that the signals that we are detecting are from the black box.

MATTINGLY: But just a few hours later, the Australian chief's search coordinator rolls back expectations, saying there has been no major breakthrough in the search for MH370.

The seemingly mixed messages an ongoing problem in the new 35-day mystery that produces clues without conclusions and raises hopes without results. Like this statement from the Malaysian government on Monday.

HISHAMMUDDIN HUSSEIN, MALAYSIAN ACTING TRANSPORTATION MINISTER: We continue to hope and pray for survivors.

MATTINGLY: That was a full two weeks after all hope was officially lost. Families were bluntly informed via text message no survivors.

REPORTER: If you think the Malaysians are being as open and honest --

STEVE WANG, SON OF MH370 PASSENGER: No, of course not. They hide so many things. They cannot explain even the most implausible things, they cannot explain it. So, I think there must be something that was hiding.

MATTINGLY: Blatant contradictions damage credibility. A week ago, Malaysian officials said the criminal investigation cleared the passengers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As we have said earlier, only the passengers has been cleared.

MATTINGLY: But just yesterday, another about-face, this time on Britain's Sky News. The Malaysian acting transportation manager says everyone on board remains under suspicion.

HUSSEIN: There are cultural differences. There are times when we are lost in translation. And we are learning through this process. And basically, I'm not saying that we were -- we must handle it perfectly.

MATTINGLY: And yet the simplest facts are subject to change. The last contact with Flight 370 once believed to be the copilot suspiciously saying "All right, good night" is now reported to be the pilot issuing a standard "Good night, Malaysian 370."

As the physical search presses on, the only certainty is there's still no way to determine how or why the flight disappeared.

David Mattingly, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: And I want to bring in Richard Quest, our aviation analysts Miles O'Brien and Mary Schiavo also joining me.

So, Richard, these mixed messages that you have heard -- incompetence? Inexperience? What is it?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: A lot of it is just simply the moment. Comments -- element of any experience, an element of being overwhelmed, this is unprecedented.

We've never seen anything like this before. Maybe some people should be saying I don't know when they're giving an answer. But then we'd be criticizing them for saying, I don't know.

It's the size, the scale and the scope of this that is absolutely breathtaking. So far, though, so far most of what people are saying is wrong or inexact is not that important. The really important bit is what happened on the night when it did the turn.

BURNETT: So, Mary, let me ask you. Here is another one. This is really, really crucial, right? The Malaysian police say, look, we have cleared all the passengers. We're look at the pilots. We're looking at the crewmembers.

OK. That's a dramatic thing to do, right? Clear all these people. And now, the man we saw in David Mattingly piece, the acting transportation minister today in an interview says everyone on board remains under suspicion. I mean, is that just a misspeak or is that incompetence? What do you see as someone who has been in this situation?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: And somebody who has been in government hours for a very long time. I think what they're doing is covering up government incompetence, not covering up the facts of the case. I think they truly don't know the facts of the case. Things like that that they really don't know and somebody went out and said it was this -- you know, the copilot and the pilot, they're trying to cover up that they just don't know and they're incompetent. The same things on the problems with the radar, except in that case, it delayed the proper search, finding the proper search areas for about a week.

So, now, they're pointing fingers at each other. But, again, they're trying to cover up government incompetence, not the facts surrounding this case, I think.

BURNETT: And, Miles -- I mean, what about the thing about the pilots and who spoke what? We talked about this a little bit last night. But this is pretty important that they haven't been able to -- first, they said it was the copilot who spoke the final words. Then they said, well, he did a lot of the speaking, but the final words were spoken by the pilot.

If true, that could end up being a very, very important clue. But at this point, you never know what's true, right?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Might or might not. But why not release that tape? Just that one little tape so we can all listen to it.

BURNETT: Right.

O'BRIEN: How about if many millions of ears listened to it, maybe we would all be able to come to a conclusion. Why haven't we heard or seen the transcripts from the Ho Chi Minh City side of this transaction, which is a very important piece of the puzzle. Why haven't we heard, you know, in the west and I'm sure in Malaysia, there are recorded conversations on the landlines between the controllers to indicate what conversations occurred during this handoff from one controller to another.

You know, we have a 40-minute gap before the Malaysian controllers even notified the military there that there was some sort of missing aircraft -- 40 minutes. Now, even with the handoff included in all this, where there would be some confusion as to who was talking to whom, 40 minutes is kind of crazy.

BURNETT: I mean, are they just afraid of international embarrassment?

QUEST: No, no, no. It's the detail. They haven't got their hands around some of the facts.

But I do need to correct one point. This idea of when they started looking in the west. And as a result of looking west --

BURNETT: Meaning, when they started looking for the plane after the turn. They knew it made a turn.

QUEST: Correct. The myth is getting out there, and I'm sorry, Mary, but you sort of bought into it, forgive me, that it was a week.

It's not. I've got the document here on the 9th of March, they say there is the pocket of a turn back, and they are now looking to the Straits of Malacca.

So, we have to be very careful. There is the evidence there that there has been mistakes made. But by the same token, this idea that somehow they didn't tell who or what or how for a week, it's simply not true.

BURNETT: Mary, you have been a proponent of this having been a mechanical malfunction. Given all of this, given what we know and what we don't know and what has changed, but given this that we don't have an answer at this point and where that plane again, an American commander now telling me look, that is the black box from this plane. We don't actually see the plane yet, though, which is crucial -- do you still think this is mechanical?

SCHIAVO: Well, I still think it could be because we don't have any evidence of a crime. And I was a criminal prosecutor for a very long time. And if you don't have evidence, you shouldn't be ruling out other explanations.

BURNETT: Right.

SCHIAVO: And other explanations in some cases are simpler than going through all the back bends to get a crime. So, unless and until they have evidence of a crime, we must keep all things on the table, including the mechanical.

And there are many scenarios where that would work. I just don't think we should discard them and say it's a crime when we have no evidence of a crime yet.

BURNETT: That's a fair point. Richard, you have made that point often too. But are there many scenarios in which mechanical could explain a turn and then another turn and all of this, given your reporting at that point?

QUEST: No, of course, there are not. This sort of mechanical situation we are talking about would be extremely unusual, extremely rare, and could actually have happened. And that's why Mary is absolutely right, because every time -- Mary, you know this better than anybody. Every time you do get a mechanical, you suddenly discover something happened that nobody ever thought was likely.

BURNETT: Well, this could happen. This is something that would change people's willingness to fly. If this kind of a thing could happen on a mechanical -- I mean, this is -- I mean, what do you think, Miles?

O'BRIEN: I think the back-bends, actually -- to slightly disagree with Mary, I'm just looking at it from a different perspective. The back-bends are on the mechanical side.

Frankly, the simplest explanation involves a deliberate act.

BURNETT: Yes.

O'BRIEN: The back bends are trying to come up with a scenario where all those things failed in that way and the plane kept flying for all that distance. That is a hard one to conjure up, but I've been working on it. It's hard.

BURNETT: All right. We're going to hit pause there, because, of course, the rule usually is the simplest explanation ends up being the explanation. In this case, the simplest explanation may be still utterly bizarre but more simple than the other ones.

OUTFRONT next, why are officials so confident that they have found those black boxes, that those pings are from Flight 370?

And Anthony Bourdain is back with a new series of "PARTS UNKNOWN." So, he has one place he is really, really excited about. It has a place that has a very interesting place in my memory, and we're going to talk about it together.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: All right. I want to check with Anderson with a look what's coming up on "AC360" on a Friday night.

Hey, Anderson.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Hey. We're coming in breaking news on the program. New questions, some serious questions tonight about the first hours when Flight 370 was crossing back over Malaysia, when there was still an opportunity to track the plane and possibly even prevent disaster. We're going to talk to our panel about how the Malaysian military delaying sharing information they had gathered.

Also ahead, we heard about towed pinger locaters and sonobuoys, and other devices being used in the search. Ahead on the program, assets that maybe news that we don't know about, or the viewers don't know about. Secret military assets that were used on other underwater searches that were never reported because the governments don't want you to know about them. Gary Tuchman has that story.

Also, if recovery teams do pull the black boxes from the Flight 370 out of the ocean, what can they tell investigators? Randi Kaye looks at other crashes to see what has been learned in the past.

That's all at the top of the hour, Erin.

BURNETT: All right, Anderson, we'll see you in just a few minutes.

And our coverage of the search continues. Here is the breaking news we have at this hour. The U.S. Navy Commander William Marks is telling me he is confident the pings detected earlier this week are from the black boxes of Flight 370. I want to play for you exactly what he said. This is the first time an American official has said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Commander, Australia's prime minister, Tony Abbott, came out and said directly look, he is confident that what you've heard so far is from a black box that is from this plane. Do you share that view?

COMMANDER WILLIAM MARKS, ABOARD THE USS BLUE RIDGE (via telephone): Yes, I do, for a couple of reasons. One is it was a -- we are detecting very continuous pings. And they are coming through in a manner consistent with exactly what you would expect from a black box. We've ruled out that it was anything unnatural or anything from commercial shipping or anything like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: I'm joined now by our Richard Quest and Miles O'Brien and Jeff Wise. OK. Great to have all of you with us.

Miles, what do you think? I mean, they say there has been no acoustic detection in the past 24 hours. Is the black box dead? And do you agree with Commander Marks? He says, look, we have ruled out commercial shipping, we ruled out everything else it could possibly be -- yes, this is it.

O'BRIEN: Yes, I think it's nice to be optimistic. I just -- I always think about how the families would interpret something like this.

And your impressions, your opinions are less important than the facts. You know, we've got four good pings. We're homing in on it. We're getting close to what everything points us to this.

But to make it sound like it's a slam-dunk I think is somewhat dangerous. I just imagine if for some reason this all falls apart, how would the families feel about that? So, I just -- you know, officials, they want to express their enthusiasm over this. And I get that. And they're working hard out there, and all that is important. But it's so important that the language be very precise when you're thinking about these families.

BURNETT: Right. And I want to play again the sound here from the pingers that they've picked up so far. Let me just play this again.

(PINGER SOUND)

BURNETT: It's like a raindrop, Jeff, but it's clearly at least to a layperson it sounds like a man made noise. Do you share the optimism?

JEFF WISE, AVIATION JOURNALIST: I do not share the optimism.

BURNETT: All right. Explain why.

WISE: Well, there is a bunch of problems. One is that the sheer unlikelihood that they would find something on the first try -- normally, the way you would do it, you find the floating debris and then you track it backwards to find the point of entry and then you go up under that and you find -- then you search on the bottom of the ocean.

Here we just -- we were running out of time. We thought, well, this pinger is about to die. Let's just like throw in the tow fish and see what we can find.

BURNETT: And which they did along the Inmarsat arc, which, of course, again, it's a huge arc. But at the -- it is along the arc of the --

(CROSSTALK)

WISE: It's a thousand miles long.

BURNETT: It's a thousand miles, but it is on that arc. So it's not totally random.

WISE: Close to random, not totally random.

Now, here is a bigger problem. Frequency is wrong. That an unsolvable problem? Maybe not. But the fact remains it's the wrong frequency.

Here is another problem -- when they found these echo -- these pings --

BURNETT: Frequency is coming in around 33 instead of 37 1/2. Right.

WISE: OK. Now, they found -- we hear about these four pings. The first one was longer. The second one was shorter and the last two were pretty short. They're far from each other. They're too far from each other.

The tow fish only has a range of two and a half miles. These things are more like 12 miles apart. So, at least half of them by logic have to be false positives. I sense Richard's disagreement with me here. But I think there's a number of reasons why there's holes on this.

And I would rather -- if he believes that this is nevertheless actually the black box, I would love to hear his reasons for that, rather than just the confidence that he is sharing --

BURNETT: Right. You're talking about Commander Marks.

All right, Richard, what do you think? What about this point about the distance?

QUEST: You're not listening to what they're saying, with respect. In that news conference, when he announced the pings, he did -- he laid it out chapter and verse why he believes they are -- I don't know. I will be quite open, I do not know if they are the pings. I believe they are probably are because he has said they are, he has given the evidence.

The frequency, he has explained away what they might be different. The experts --

WISE: Explain away, granted.

QUEST: The experts, they have said stable, concise, the right -- 1.1 second -- they have said they believe it's consistent.

WISE: OK.

QUEST: But more important than that, this positioning is at the end of the six and a half ping satellite, it's handshake, it's where it's supposed to be.

(CROSSTALK)

BURNETT: So it is at one point along that arc.

WISE: If this way is right, but this way -- remember, it's a thousand miles long. It could be anywhere. QUEST: No, the last six and a half -- the last hand shake, the hand shake where they talked about was that the moment of the plane going down, it's where it is.

BURNETT: Miles, let me ask you though, if it is not. And I'm not trying to say you're taking this point of view. But if this is not the black boxes from this plane, given how they sound, that they do sound so manmade, that person who made the pinger has been on the show saying he thinks this is the pinger, what else could it be? I mean, just again, I'm not saying you think it's something else. But what else could it be?

QUEST: Well, there are scientific reasons that there would be pingers there, but shame on the scientist who has a pinger there that's doing this and hasn't said, hey, that's mine. That probably would have happened.

So, you know, I tend to believe they're marching down the right road. But this is so extraordinary without a shred of debris, with all of a sudden, you know, out of the blue -- seemingly, pretty close out of the blue, being on top of the pingers.

Now, the only explanation I have for this is that in the category of things that are not shared with the public is the Australian over the horizon radar, when they scrub the data, was able to come up with a good fix for that airplane. We haven't gotten good reporting on that, we may never know this for sure. But I don't think it is any coincidence that they're on that spot. I mean, it is the Inmarsat ring, but how did they get to that spot so quickly without a shred of debris? I wonder if that's part of the answer.

BURNETT: That's very interesting, because you're right, the Australians had said nothing about what their radar picked up.

Thanks very much to all three.

And next, Anthony Bourdain and I had -- well, we had a hard cider and a beer together. It's OUTFRONT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Anthony Bourdain's new series starts. It's pretty amazing, and we had a chance to -- well, have a drink together and talk about his favorite experience.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANTHONY BOURDAIN, CNN HOST, "PARTS UNKNOWN": My sentimental favorite, French chef Paul Bocuse. That was -- that goes deep into you know, my many years as a chef. And my first true love, food.

BURNETT: So, Paul Bocuse, you bring that up, when I grew up I had this little black matchbox car, it said Paul Bocuse on the side. I got it one summer when I was there, and my parents went on an anniversary lunch. They've gone this three-hour lunch all the time, it's hell for a kid, right? And Paul Bocuse, they went for lunch. BOURDAIN: Yes.

BURNETT: So it was like thank God, I avoided that nightmare, I look back, God, I should have gone anyway. I got that little bread truck. So, my question to you is what is it like to be there with Paul Bocuse?

BOURDAIN: Well, understand I grew up as a young man, as a young chef. If I can be absolutely certain of one thing that I would never, ever eat at restaurant Paul Bocuse, and certainly would not find myself next to him as he went to the greatest parts of his entire career, much less go duck hunting with him.

He is a fascinating man. He is like Muhammad Ali, that kind of -- you know, he transcends his profession.

BURNETT: You spent time in the United States, as you did last season, but this season, a couple of places. Las Vegas -- a lot of people would say, Las Vegas, and culinary excellence, those two things don't go together. Mississippi Delta, people might say the same thing. But yet, you found it.

BOURDAIN: Vegas, if you're very, very rich, they are some of the greatest chefs of the world are represented have outposts in Vegas. You can eat spectacularly well.

On the other hand of the spectrum, off the strip, one of the greatest Thai restaurants in America is an anonymous strip mall, you know, way -- sort of out of town in Las Vegas, there is some good food to be had there.

BURNETT: Mississippi, Mexico, Russia, Thailand, other places you went -- obviously you have amazing choices from all of them. Any other one of that stands out with some sort of a fun or disgusting? I like disgusting anecdotes always.

BOURDAIN: You know, Russia -- you know, Russia, under the shadow of Botox stretch -- horrifying, omnipresent, you know, all-powerful leader --

BURNETT: I wonder to whom you are referring.

BOURDAIN: It's become a very interesting place.

BURNETT: Yes. You know, I'm curious. In Moscow, a few years ago, I went to buy -- I was on a shoot, right? I am not a food aficionado, I was starving, we said we were going to get food at one of the stands on the street. You know, instead of getting a soda, they sell all the vodka shots. So, the drink that you get -- I mean, they like their alcohol.

Did you have fun with their -- could you keep up with them? You know, I have seen women at night out drinking a whole bottle of vodka straight.

BOURDAIN: Any 80-year-old grandmother in Russia can drink me over the shoulder, throw me over her shoulder and drive me home and they drink. I consider myself a professional drinker, but I cannot take it. I cannot keep up with these guys. And I need a few years in between Russia shows.

BURNETT: Thank you, Anthony.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: And it -- by the way, this is one of my favorite pictures, this picture of Anthony on the train.

Be sure to catch the season premiere of "PARTS UNKNOWN". It is Sunday night, 9:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN. I can't wait to see that one about Paul Bocuse. I know my parents will be thrilled to watch the one. I still, by the way, would think it's hell to have a three- hour lunch.

Anyway, thanks so much for joining us. Hope, you have a wonderful weekend. We'll see you back again Monday night at 7:00 p.m.

"ANDERSON COOPER 360" begins next.