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New Day Saturday

Malaysia: Plane Disappearance "Deliberate"; How Missing Plane Mystery Unfolded; College Teams Ready for March Madness

Aired March 15, 2014 - 07:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: 7:00 o'clock right now in the East, and we are so grateful to have your company. I'm Christi Paul.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. This is NEW DAY SATURDAY.

And if you think you went to sleep knowing the narrative of this missing flight, Malaysia Airlines 370, it has completely changed overnight, especially now that we have the new statement from the Malaysian prime minister. And he has confirmed the Boeing 777 deviated from its flight plan because of, quote, "deliberate action by someone on the plane." And that investigation -- as that investigation rather, has now focused on crew members and member.

Now, as that investigation moves forward, we've learned in the last hour that a large number of police officers arrived near the home of one of the pilots.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: The captain, (AUDIO GAP). We have also learned the search area -- my goodness, you thought you knew where this was going to be? Take a look now because it's focused on two corridors. The first, what you see, see that red line there? That whole arch encompassing that whole arch is what they're be looking. North as far as Kazakhstan. South, as far as the Indian Ocean. This is huge.

That new area really has alerted Chinese officials as well. They're none too happy, demanding that Malaysia provide more specific information for them. In fact, China's foreign minister says that country is now sending its own technical experts to assisting the investigation.

So, investigators now taking a hard look at those two possible routes that Flight 370 may have taken.

We want to bring in CNN's Jim Clancy. He's in Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur where the Boeing 777 departed eight days ago now and then vanished.

BLACKWELL: Jim, you've been following the investigation from day one. Tell us about this new map, because people who are just joining us this hour, this is the first time they're seeing this. Tell us about these two new corridors. JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All right, Victor, Christi, this isn't easy and I wasn't a map major, all right? Let's put it like that.

This device on the aircraft that sent a handshake, it opened itself up once an hour, only once an hour, to the satellite, would send a signal every hour and they're able to follow it. At 8:11, it sent its last one. That's a full eight hours after it took off here from Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

All right. As it did so, they can get a reading on how the satellite antenna, how many degrees would be the center of this object. But that's all they can do. They can't pinpoint it on a map.

So you have an area, you take a look at that map, anywhere you can see a red line, that plane could have been anywhere along that red line, either in that northern quadrant or way down on the southern quadrant. So, it could have been over an open ocean. It could have been out over the steps of Kazakhstan. It could have been out over southern China.

All of those areas are going to have to be studied. And mind you, is this just one snapshot that they have. They have one from every hour that that plane stayed aloft, or stayed at least powered up. And so, they're hoping to reach that data and reach out and get radar data, information that this plane would take morning a mile-long run runway.

It's not something that's easy to hide if it were to go in the northern area. In the southern area, you're talking about wide open ocean.

We know this, Victor, Christi, we know that the plane was nearly out of fuel when this snapshot, if you will, was taken. So the plane could have gone much farther.

Back to you.

PAUL: OK. So we know that they're re-shifting their focus on that part of the country. But they're also shifting their focus more closely now, in-depth to the passengers and the crew, yes?

CLANCY: You know, that was maybe in my mind, one of the big shifts. I think that the government here had been loathed to say that it was a hijacking outright. They're not saying that. They are saying all options are open. But they realize, confronted with this evidence, they have to change course in this investigation. And that's what they decided to do.

Listen to what the Prime Minister Najib Razak had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NAJIB RAZAK, MALAYSIAN PRIME MINISTER: In light of this latest investigation, the Malaysian authorities have refocused their investigation into the crew and passengers on board.

Despite media reports that the plane was hijacked, I wish to be very clear, we are still investigating all possibility as to what caused MH370 to deviate from its original flight plan.

(END VIDEOI CLIP)

CLANCY: All right, the prime minister there making it very clear. I can tell you, that police were at the compound where the pilots live. You know, like a housing subdivision. They were there in substantial numbers. They have blocked off the street leading to one of the homes. One of the pilots has had about 25,000 hours of experience.

He's in -- I believe he's in his 50s. There's a 29-year-old pilot that was the first mate. He is in his late 20s. Both men's records will be examined.

But more than that, they will look at that passenger list to see -- they're going to go over it one more time and check everybody on that list out. And they are going to reach out to all of these countries to get more data, to get more information on all of these people, and try to assemble, you know, a better investigation. They want to lead it. It was their national airline -- Christi, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Jim Clancy live for us in Kuala Lumpur, following this investigation from the very start. Jim, thank you.

PAUL: We're going to bring in CNN law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes, too.

Tom, thank you for being with us early in the morning.

I know in light of the information that this plane deviated from its flight plan by what is new today a deliberate act by someone on that plane, according to the prime minister. When you hear that, does that suggest to you sabotage? Does it suggest terrorism? And what's the difference between the two?

BLACKWELL: Yes.

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, it suggests to me, Christi and Victor, that, you know, obviously somebody took control of that aircraft. And took it another 4,000 miles from where it was supposed to be going.

ow, is that one of the pilots? The captain, the co-pilot? Did a hijacker get into the cockpit? You know, either of those scenarios are possible.

So, they have to look at all the personnel that worked on that airline. Had access to the airplane, all the passengers, trying to determine through their identification and documents used to travel which might be false, not just the two Iranians but others who might not have used true names and their passports are still stolen and they're trying to track every person down and verify who they are and do background checks on them.

Also you would have to check the caterers, the house cleaning people, the mechanics that work on that flight because they could possibly hide a weapon, you know, either in the bathroom or understand the seat where the life vests are so a hijacker could board with no problem, go through the magnetometer and have something waiting for him to use to take control of that aircraft. So, all of those are possibilities.

What we're hearing from the Malaysians now, they're confirming what many people were worried about from the beginning, that a human being, one or more, took that aircraft from its original course on a different course.

BLACKWELL: So, Tom, we've reported this morning that China's foreign minister says that they want more comprehensive and accurate information from Malaysia. And after listening to this statement from the prime minister, I can understand some of the frustration, because here's what I'm having a difficult time reconciling -- the prime minister will not go as far as to say that this is a hijacking. However, he has confirmed that it's consistent with someone taking deliberate action on the plane.

So, whether that is a hijacker who is a passenger, a crew member or the pilot, when you take a plane off its ended course and veer it off to some other country or some other place, isn't that by definition a hijacking?

FUENTES: Well, that's true, but, you know, we're talking about a semantic difference here. You have people doing these press conferences, and English is not their native language. So you could have a degree of terminology. And even -- even here in the U.S. when we describe an event, sometimes, we use different terms. Is it a hijack is it the pilot takes his own plane?

We just had an Ethiopian airlines pilot a month ago, fly his plane, instead of Italy, take it to Switzerland and ask for asylum. Now, did he hijack his plane? He didn't kill anybody. I mean, he landed the plane safely and crawled out of the window and said can I have asylum, and they introduced him to their jail.

But, do you call that a hijacking? What do you call that? Do you call that a pilot suicide? Or maybe a pilot under duress being forced to take that plane somewhere?

So, you know, there's many possibilities. Exactly what it's being called I think is a little bit nuanced since they're not speaking in their native language.

PAUL: OK, I only have -- sorry.

BLACKWELL: Just that one question. I think we're going for the same one.

The home in Kuala Lumpur of this captain -- the FBI -- well, were know the police, rather, have gone in. What would you be looking for in that home?

FUENTES: Well, they'll be looking for any indication, you know, additional paperwork. Additional records from his personal computer. His laptop, obviously, he's a high-technology guy. He's got a flight simulator already there. Maybe there's some indication or notes that indicate that he was looking at other airports as far away as Kazakhstan or northern Australia or any of the other places that plane could have reached, given the amount of fuel it might have had. So, any indication he may have already been planning this event.

Now, even before searching the home, they could already be obtaining his bank records, Internet records, cell phone records, talking to colleagues, talking to friends, neighbors and relatives to get a state of mind, his mental stability. Was he depressed, was he happy, somebody threatening him. There's so many different things that would come up that would cause an individual to do something he normally wouldn't do. So, they're looking at all aspects of that.

PAUL: All right. Tom Fuentes, thank you so much. We appreciate you taking the time to walk us through this.

FUENTES: You're welcome.

PAUL: What surprised me, you know, if the pilot had something to do with it, because if he was trying to plan something nefarious, he put that information out on the Internet that he had built this thing in his home. So, it certainly just points so many more questions into that. That's part of what we're talking about today, as this whole thing seems to just get amplified with it in terms of searching overnight, the intentions changing overnight, hearing from the prime minister, and continue to look at all the false leads that have come up and how much time it's taken.

So much more to explore with this in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: We're at the quarter hour this morning on NEW DAY SATURDAY. And we're following all the latest twists and turns and there have been many overnight --

PAUL: Oh, my goodness, yes.

BLACKWELL: -- in the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. And today, the country's prime minister said whenever happened was likely the result of a deliberate act inside that plane.

PAUL: Investigators are focusing, basically, refocusing I guess you could say, attention on the passengers and the crew at this point and the massive search for the jet has widened yet again. But think about -- it's been more than a week since this aviation mystery started.

And Alexander Field is going to take a look for us here at some of the frustrations and the false leads that played out over this past week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEXANDER FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): "All right, good night", one week ago, that was the last communication from the crew onboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. At 12:41 Saturday morning, the 777 leaves Kuala Lumpur headed for Beijing with 239 people on board. By 1:30 in the morning, the flight loses all communications, including transponder signals. At 2:40, it shows up on radar hundreds of miles off course.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the moment, we have got no idea where this aircraft is.

FIELD: Over the weekend, the search goes over the mouth of the Gulf of Thailand and expands to the other side of the Malay Peninsula in the Strait of Malacca, before it widens again, covering the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea.

Families fear the worse while searchers have a series of false starts.

JAMES WOOD, MISSING PASSENGER'S BROTHER: We're doing OK. We're getting through -- we're taking it sometimes an hour at a time, sometimes just a minute at a time.

FIELD: A Vietnamese search link spots an oil slick in the area where Flight 370 lost contact. But the slicks are later linked to cargo ships.

Vietnam's navy sees floating objects in the Gulf of Thailand but it isn't the debris they're looking.

DAVID FUNK, FMR. INTERNATIONAL CAPTAIN, NORTHWEST AIRLINES: It's either (a), we're not looking in the right place, or (b), the aircraft touched down not unlike Captain Sullenberger did on the Hudson where the airplane touched water, or maybe it's on land somewhere.

FIELD: A Colorado company put satellite image from the Strait of Malacca online for crowdsourcing. By Wednesday, the Chinese released their own satellite images, announcing the discovery of three suspected floating objects. Search crews find nothing related to Flight 370.

Interpol Secretary Ronald Noble identifies two Iranian passengers who boarded the flight with stolen passports. Questions emerged about whether the stolen documents could somehow be linked to the plane's disappearance.

EVY POUMPORAS, FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT: The information we have is just so many ambiguous and complex and confusing, that's the issue. We're following all these leads, but it can be mechanical, but it can be terrorism.

FIELD: Officials continue to say they found no link to terrorism, but everything is being considered. On Thursday, searchers head into the Indian Ocean, amid reports based on data pinging that the plane could have flown four or five hours after it was last season on radar.

KEITH WOLZINGER, COMMERCIAL AIRLINE PILOT: Continuous pinging suggests that the plane is still in flight and still operating somewhat normally. So that would sort of rule out the idea of an in- flight breakup or crashing into the sea. FIELD: On Friday, a "Reuters" report citing unidentified sources say the plane could have been deliberately thrown towards the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean. The U.S. officials say the plane likely crashed in the Indian Ocean.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: So, Alexandra is joining us live from New York.

Alexandra, good to see you.

There's so much confusion and contradictions with this thing. What is the latest that you're hearing?

FIELD: Right. Christi, Victor, day after day, development after development, we've heard all of this theory some of them seeming plausible, some of them seeming rather implausible. But as you've reported this morning, so many developments overnight, most significantly this news that there could have been deliberate action in the cockpit. That's what officials are looking at right now.

Now, tangibly, what this means is that the searchers will move away from the South China Sea. They will now focus to the north, along the Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan border, and to the south from Indonesia into the southern in Indian Ocean. So, we will have to see if this lead, this new information, brings us any closer to finding this plane.

But certainly again, on day eight, that continues to be the hope.

BLACKWELL: Certainly for the families waiting to get some news of what happened to the passengers.

Alexandra Fields for us, thank you so much.

PAUL: The fate of the passengers, it's such a mystery now. But there had been so many prayers and well wishers from people who are thinking about the families of these men and women.

BLACKWELL: It's the not knowing and having no answer at all, that is the absolute worst we're hearing from some of these family members. And we're going to introduce some of the people on board 370 in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: We've seen the anguish and the despair of family members who are waiting to learn the fate of their loved ones who are were on that Boeing 777. And you can imagine, you can empathize here.

And now, we're getting a more personal portrait of some of those passengers.

CNN's Nick Valencia is here with an intimate look at who is on that plane -- Nick.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Victor, 239 passengers, 239 individual stories ranging from engineers to artists to just ordinary travelers.

Paul Weeks originally from New Zealand, he was one of those travelers. He was on his way to a dream job as a miner in Mongolia. And before he got on that flight, he gave his wife his wedding ring and his watch just in case anything happened to him to give to his two young children. And his wife hoping for his safe return.

Another couple that CNN can confirm, Mukesh Mukherjee and his wife Bai Xiaomo, they originally from Canada, they have lived in Beijing and they also had two young sons that they left behind with their grandparents, that they were expected to vacation in Vietnam. Mukesh's boss told our local affiliate he was a great colleague and great friend.

Another person we want to talk about say Malaysian national who lives here in Pennsylvania. This is right here Chng Mei Ling, she was working a chemical processing plant to make rubber material. She was a humorous woman with an infectious laugh. That's how her friends described her. They also are hoping for her safe return.

She lived in the United States since 2010 and was on her way back to the United States when she got on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

Another person who lived right here in the United States, who was from right here on the United States, is Phil Wood. He was originally from Oklahoma City. He loved to travel the world. And that was something that he was really encouraging him and instilled in him in a young age when he moved to Germany.

His friends and family said he was a God-centered man. A very kind and humble man. You could tell by that great smile on his face there.

So, it's really difficult, Victor, when you look at that number, that large 239 number, to see it and give meaning to it. We're trying to give, this morning, portraits to some of those passengers who are on the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

BLACKWELL: Yes, we have so many questions about who -- rather, where and how. But we cannot forget the who, Nick, for 239 families and extended families and friends -- they are heartbroken, waiting for some answers.

Nick Valencia with us this morning, thank you.

VALENCIA: You bet.

BLACKWELL: Now, coming up on NEW DAY, as investigators probe who are the passengers and crew on 370, they're also expanding the search.

Up next, why investigators face enormous challenges in the days ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Now, for an update on mortgages, rates were down from last week. Take a look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: I'll be honest, our heads are spinning today as we get even more information, new information now, about what's happening with the Malaysia Flight 370.

I'm Christi Paul. We're so glad to have your company here and help walk all of us through this.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. We've got the latest for you on the disappearance of 370. Overnight, and this is what has really changed the narrative of what happened to this flight, the prime minister in Malaysia confirmed the Boeing 777 deviated from its flight plan because of -- and here's the big change -- deliberate action by someone on the plane. It's no longer about what happened on board but who's responsible.

We also learned in the last half hour that a large number of police officers arrived near the home of one of the pilots, the captain, in fact, as the prime minister says the investigation is once again focused on the crew members and the passengers.

PAUL: So, let's talk about this new search area that's focused on two corridors. Take a look at this map here. You see those red lines? It could be anywhere within those arches. Look how expansive this is.

The first point extending as far north as Kazakhstan. The second as far south as the southern Indian ocean.

That new search, by the way, has angered Chinese officials, apparently. Because they are demanding Malaysia provide more specific information to them. In fact, China's foreign minister said the company is sending its own to assist.

So, think about this -- it's been 186 hours since air traffic controllers lost contact with flight 370. Instead of finding answers, that search area we see is growing. Not only is it growing, but it has shifted. So, you think how much time is involved here.

BLACKWELL: This morning, investigators are focused on, as we see here, as Christi just said, the two portals, the red/orange color. The last connection with air traffic control, not air traffic control actually but the satellites, getting those pings of the aircraft.

Joining us more to talk about this is David Gallo, the director of the special projects at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and Andrew Johnston, geographer at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.

Good to have both of you. But let's take a step back. And we're eight days in now.

Help us wrap our heads around the challenges of a search, at waters at this depth. I mean, what are the searchers using to try to find this plane?

DAVID GALLO, WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION: Hi, Victor. Hi, Christi. Right now, I think the search is not under sea. It's still on the surface of the ocean. And that area, those corridors, are huge.

You know, when you're in a plane searching you can look as far as the horizon. Beneath the sea, you're lucky if you can see 30 feet. So, once -- in the search for Air France Flight 447 in 2009, 2010 and then 2011, we had the fortune of knowing the last known position in which we had some good idea there would be debris there and eventually there, five days later we found that.

Here, we're still searching for that last known position. So, we're a long way before we get on with this program under sea.

PAUL: OK, let me ask you, how long do you think that it could take to find this thing? I mean, we're talking about a 209-foot plane in a massive body of water. But we do have 57 ships, 48 aircraft, 13 countries hunting around the clock.

GALLO: Yes.

PAUL: Time-frame that for us.

GALLO: Hard to say, Air France, it was five days after the tragedy that they first found bits of wreckage. We thought that was a long time.

But even in that case, the thought was that that plane would never be found because it was so remote, so deep, so rugged under water. You know, all of those ships and planes are tiny compared to the kinds of areas that we're talking about.

My worry is that -- well, one, we're not absolutely positivity sure that plane had crashed, although I heard that word used yesterday in the media. I don't know where that information comes from. We're desperate to find some bit of wreckage in the water so that we can begin to understand -- you know, at this point, we've got to backtrack about using models of currents and winds and tides and whatnot to find out where that plane would have impacted the water.

So, all those planes, you know, hopefully, somebody gets lucky and sees something. But it's getting tougher by the day.

BLACKWELL: Andrew, if this plane indeed went down, immediately after or within the hours after it went out, into water, have we lost, or have searchers lost any momentum if indeed it's in the south Indian Ocean. I mean, all the days spent in the South China Sea, has that been lost, have we lost any momentum?

ANDREW JOHNSTON, GEOGRAPHER, SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM: Possibly, if you're referring to the search in the local area?

BLACKWELL: Yes.

JOHNSTON: But honestly, it's not terribly surprising -- it's unfortunate, but not terribly surprising that debris or some evidence of a crash, if that's what happened, hasn't been found yet.

As just pointed out it's a huge area. And some people have said it looks like trying to find a need until a haystack. That ratio might be wrong. It might be a tiny pinprick with within four or five haystacks.

One thing I think that's important to point out, the map that you're showing of the two corridors that I assume is based on the footprint of the antennas on the satellite that may be a little misleading in that the lines you're showing may actually need to be much wider. Some people may think that, oh, you can just fly a search aircraft along those lines until you find something. It may be in a much broader area. That's really unknown right now.

PAUL: You know, Andrew, we always hear in cases like this about a ping from a black box and how that might help. We haven't heard anything about whether something like that has been heard. We assume not because we haven't heard it. But if there is a ping, if it can be detected, how long could that be going off to help alert searchers?

JOHNSTON: Well, I'm not an expert at black boxes, but from what I understand, you've got multiple days and you need to be within a pretty close proximity of the black box in order to hear that ping.

So we've still got time. I think it goes for a couple of weeks to find that. But as I said, the focus of attention right now is trying to find evidence, perhaps, on the surface of the ocean using tools like aircraft and also satellite imagery to try to find evidence.

But the area is so large. And the physical evidence could be pretty tiny. Some of the satellite image tools we've used so far can make things visible that are the size of maybe a football field or larger. Some of the high resolution satellites you can resolve things down to the size of an automobile or maybe even a dining room table.

But you need to know exactly where you're looking. That's the unknown right now. The area is so large, it's going to be quite some time if anything turns up.

BLACKWELL: You know, I wonder the depths of the waters being searched now. Initially, this was a pretty shallow area, the first couple of days of the search. Then we moved off into the South China Sea, and now into the southern Indian Ocean. Give us an idea exactly how deep the wares are.

And although we're waiting for debris to float to the top, where this plane, the body of the plane, could be?

GALLO: Yes, well, you know, if we're talking about Bay of Bengal, you can get down fairly easily down to a couple miles' depth. And the further south you go towards the southwest or even to the south, south or southwest -- well, the seafloor gets progressively deeper down to even three-plus miles and far more rugged. Up to the north, it's sediment coverage. That makes finding or hearing the ping tougher.

In the more rugged terrain, you know, south, it could be rugged volcanic terrain as opposed to sediment. It can be really tough.

And the other thing is, in the Gulf of Thailand, the water's very shallow, a couple hundred feet. You can use -- there's quite a bit of equipment available to survey those kinds of water depths but once you get into the deep water, then you're talking about have fairly specialized equipment that also requires fairly specialized ships to carry it. So, you know, everything is trending towards the more difficult right now.

JOHNSTON: Yes.

PAUL: OK. So, Andrew, I know you're speculating, I need to ask, are you confident that we are going to find this plane if it is in the ocean, or is this going to be one of those things that remains a mystery?

JOHNSTON: I know that for all the families of the people on the aircraft and for all of us that are interested would love to hear a definitive answer on that question. You know, like to be able to give odds whether or not we'll find something sooner or later or ever. At this point, I wouldn't hazard to guess one way or another. I really -- I really can't predict.

And I know that's not satisfying, but especially over the last 24 to 48 hours, as the possible area where this aircraft went keeps getting larger and larger and larger. If we've got a situation where something ended up in the oceans, especially, it's really impossible to predict, unfortunately.

BLACKWELL: And, of course, we hope for the families of these people that indeed is go into the water, that that closure, that finality for them, if that is indeed what happened that they get that.

David Gallo of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and Andrew Johnston of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, good to have both of you.

JOHNSTON: Thanks.

GALLO: Thanks, Victor.

PAUL: Thank you, gentlemen.

Coming up on NEW DAY, devastated family members as we've been talking about this, the passengers. I mean, yes, they're still waiting for answers, but what can they do to cope with this emotional toll? How can we help them? Can we? We're going to talk to a psychology expert about that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: You can imagine grief-stricken family members and friends of these passengers, they're waiting for answers. They've been waiting now for eight days, hoping against hope that there will be some good news about their loved ones.

PAUL: Yes. Clinical psychologist Jeff Gardere is live with us from New York right now.

Jeff, thank you for being with us.

JEFF GARDERE, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Good morning, Christi and Victor.

PAUL: It's not about the plane but the people on it. If you could sit down with these families today, what's the first thing you would say to them?

GARDERE: The first thing I would say to them is that we totally understand, as much as we can, showing the empathy, that the pain and frustration that they're going under. You know, the issue here is that the Malaysian Airlines company is not giving consistent information. Part of it is because they don't have some, but there are rumors that they may be suppressing information.

So, you know it's going to make these family members very angry, much more frustrated. And, of course, they're completely devastated because this is one of the greatest mysteries -- aeronautical mysteries that we're dealing right now.

BLACKWELL: Tell me the role that all of these theories play into the emotions of someone waiting. You hear all the talk about, well, maybe the plane as at the bottom of the ocean. And then the discussion of hijacking which could lead to some credulity to a theory that someone has them alive somewhere. What are they feeling?

GARDERE: Well, it certainly is an emotional roller coaster ride, because they have the highs, they have the lows.

Victor, you talked about a glimmer of hope. That's what they're holding on to. I call this story the hope and horror -- the hope that they're still alive but the horror that they may have died a terrifying, horrible death. Or if they're alive, hopefully if they're alive, a lot of them don't have medications, are they being tortured, what is going on with them?

So, these people -- the family members are in a no man's land right now emotionally.

A lot of them don't know what to feel, other than the anger the frustration that they're having with people they can be pointing fingers to as far as the airlines at this particular point.

So, I would say, Christi, going back to your question, I would say to them -- talk to one another. Rely on your faith right now. Pray as much as you can. But the important thing is to stick together. Because you can understand each other's pain more than anyone else right now.

PAUL: And it's -- I have to believe -- I mean, I had a girlfriend who was murdered. In that first 24 hours of not knowing is the hardest by all means. I can't imagine what these folks are going through.

How do you make sure, too, that they don't isolate themselves? That they keep those conversations going? Because that can be dangerous when they do that, yes?

GARDERE: Yes, it is very dangerous to isolate yourself and certainly suppress the feelings that you're asking because it makes you sick, it makes you lash out at others. And right now, you really need to stick together.

I think one of the things that the airline is doing, which is important, is that they do have the family members together. They do give them briefings together. And I think that solidarity is helping them form their own informal support groups.

And I certainly do hope that they're putting grief counselors out there, even though we don't know what's going on, to just allow them to communicate, to just allow them be still if they need to. But to know that someone is there, and in some way, some way, trying to keep hope alive until we find out what happens here.

PAUL: All right. Jeff Gardere, great advice. Thank you so much.

GARDERE: My pleasure.

PAUL: That's the one thing we can understand, these people want to be heard.

BLACKWELL: Yes, they want to be heard. As he said, it's best to be together. There's few people in the world understand exactly what they're going through.

PAUL: Few people will understand, absolutely.

BLACKWELL: And, you know, they're hearing the updates about the search and it's changing. We know not just the aircraft and ships involved in searching for 370.

But also digital volunteers are joined in this search now, they're doing it through crowdsourcing. We're going to take a look at how this works when we come back.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Of all of things that are changing overnight, this is one of them too. Think about the numbers here -- 57 ships, 48 aircrafts, 13 -- I think it's up to 14 countries involved in the search for the missing Malaysia airplane. Well, we think it crashed. We don't know yet.

Other volunteers have joined the digital search for clues. This is a new arena here.

BLACKWELL: Yes, and lot of people haven't really heard about it, don't know about it. It's called crowdsourcing. It allows people around the world to help comb this massive search area. So many people want to do something. But something like this, you don't know what you can d do. This is something people are doing. CNN's Ana Cabrera has that part of the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Joe Franzeca (ph) in Huntsville, Alabama is on a mission.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is an awful lot of ground to cover.

CABRERA: He is one of many around the world crowdsourcing, using satellite shots to search for Malaysia Airline Flight 370.

(on camera): We were looking perhaps over an ocean. Yes, I mean, that's my reputation.

(voice-over): We searched with Franzeca through his computer, joining what organizers say are 2 million volunteers poring over the digital images, looking for a trace of the vanished flight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is important for the families to know that people are helping the search.

CABRERA: It can be an arduous task. Sometimes, there's not much to see.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today's imagery is primarily white caps.

CABRERA: But crowdsourcers on social media are sharing what they think, maybe a raft, what appears to be wings.

The search area has been divided into small sessions. Each picture or tile represents 250 square meters, roughly 10 city blocks. The key is, if you see anything, wreckage, a raft, an oil slick, or an object, you flag it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a real needle in a haystack problem.

CABRERA: Digital Globe, which launched the crowdsourcing campaign on Monday, says every pixel has had eyes on it at least 30 times. So far, more than 745,000 features have been tagged. Right now, experts are working to determine if the tags are real clues.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have not seen anything of any particular interest at this point. So, you know, we will keep searching.

CABRERA: Franzeca has looked at the equivalent of 4,000 city blocks himself and refuses to give up.

Ana Cabrera, CNN, Denver.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: And the effects of this expanding beyond the water there, beyond Malaysia, that part of the world. Wall Street is feeling the missing plane as well.

PAUL: Yes. We are talking about Boeing, Malaysia Airlines, Rolls Royce, apparently they're taking big hits.

Alison Kosik has more for us this morning.

Good morning, Alison.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Victor and Christi.

The impact of the disappearance of missing Malaysian Air Flight 370 is felt on Wall Street. Boeing took the biggest hit this past week. Its shares dropped 4 percent. Boeing makes the 777 plane, the model that went missing. And it's a really important plane for being. It's used on a lot of international routes, and at $260 million a pop, it is Boeing's cash cow, making a chunk of its sales.

But not everyone is worried. Some analysts we talk to said the financial impact for Boeing, long term, isn't a big concern. Boeing is still getting new orders for the 777.

And remember, the plane isn't new. It has been around for 20 years. Its safety record is pretty good. Plus, Boeing has weathered other problems in the past like production delays and battery fires with its Dreamliner plane. But the short-term concerns are having a broad effect.

Rolls Royce stock was volatile this week. The British company made the 777's engine. The stock ended a little higher on Friday, but there were some declines mid-week.

And over at Malaysia Airlines, that stock dropped 4 percent this week. But bottom line, analysts say the big concern is confidence. And the longer the search goes on the more confidence that is lost and for Wall Street, that's the big fear -- Victor and Christi.

PAUL: All right. Alison Kosik, thank you so very much.

BLACKWELL: Stick to come on NEW DAY, the search for Flight 370 is now bigger than ever, but a little more defined. We'll show you where officials think it was headed and why the Malaysian prime minister says the flight crew is once again the focus of the investigation, as well as some of the passengers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Hey, if you're a college basketball fan, I hope you picked your bracket wisely. March Madness, right around the corner, coming up on it.

PAUL: Have you picked yours?

BLACKWELL: No, and I'm not good at it.

PAUL: I haven't either.

CNN's Brian McFadden (ph) is joining us now.

So, this is my theory, though. BLACKWELL: Yes.

PAUL: You, I'm sure, probably have yours all filled out.

BRIAN MCFADDEN (ph): No, it's not filled out yet because selection Sunday is tomorrow.

PAUL: That's true, that's true. OK, but --

MCFADDEN (ph): I have an idea.

PAUL: But you've got more instinct on this than the rest of us do.

MCFADDEN (ph): But, Christi and Victor, that's not -- it's totally -- it's anyone's -- you have no idea what's going to happen. My grandmother beat me two years ago in the tournament. Now, it's pretty embarrassing, and she's in her 80s.

PAUL: Oh, I love it. I think there is a chance for us.

BLACKWELL: Yes, me, too.

PAUL: So, what's on the radar?

MCFADDEN (ph): Well, all Duke has to do now is win the ACC tourney, and they will most likely lock a number one seat at the NCAA big dance. And I'm telling you, it's not that easy. Coach K and Duke serving up some payback against conference rival, Clemson, very tight game that was going back and forth until the questionable call that put Duke's Rodney Hood at the stripe to clinch the game. You can start breathing again Duke fans because your Blue Devils win.

When you are a bubble team going into the ACC conference tourney, you better win and win is exactly what the North Carolina State Wolfpack is doing. The team ordered up some revenge by shocking the orange of Syracuse, 66-63. This doesn't bode well for Jim Boeheim's team which has lost five out of its last seven games. They are in a tail spin entering the big dance.

NC State however needs to win against Duke today and then the ACC tourney championship game tomorrow to stamp their ticket to the NCAA tournament.

I'm telling you, it could be anybody's game, and back to you, guys.

PAUL: All right. We'll take. Brian, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

We are so glad you are starting your day with us.

BLACKWELL: We've got a lot more ahead on the next hour of your NEW DAY, continues right now.