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Piers Morgan Live

China May Have Found Missing Flight 370

Aired March 12, 2014 - 21:00   ET

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

PIERS MORGAN, CNN HOST: This is Piers Morgan Live.

Tonight, breaking news, you're looking at what may and I have to say may be left of Flight 370, a tiny dot in the middle of a satellite image from China.

The Malaysian Air Force is on its way there right now. The Chinese say it shows what they believe are three floating objects and they're bigger than they look, the biggest is about 79 feet by 72 feet. They're in the right place close to where contact where the plane was lost where the South China Sea meets the Gulf of Thailand.

This could be a very big clue. The news, families they'd be hoping against hope they wouldn't hear but it also raises new questions. Presumed they captured on Sunday, did the Chinese know what they had? If so, why did they wait so long to reveal these images to the world? How long will it take searches to reach the site? And does this mean the plane never changed course as we have been told originally by Malaysian government officials? These images of course tell us nothing about what actually happened when the plane disappeared. Was it catastrophic, mechanical failure, terrorism or something else?

Our Big Story is of course the breaking news on missing Flight 370. Chinese satellite images that may show the crash site have emerged. CNN's Jim Sciutto is here with much more.

Jim, are these pictures credible? Do people think this is the missing plane?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: It's too early to say really. We've talked to experts who looked at those pictures and they say in fact they're too big to be pieces of a plane that would have hit the water at speed. That's a view. The Chinese government released them and this is a Chinese agency that runs their satellites flying over this part of the world and around the world. They list this as a possibly wreckage site and you have to think that China would have looked and studied these photos for sometime before releasing them.

And right now, we have just learned that the Malaysian Air Force is now sending a plane to that area, a search plane, to examine that wreckage more closely.

MORGAN: Now, these dot images do bare a striking similarity to ones that appear pretty quickly after the event and were reportedly recorded at the same time lending more credence to perhaps their validity.

Presumably the Chinese wouldn't have released these, if they didn't have a pretty strong sense that it maybe the plane.

SCIUTTO: I think that's a fair point. You know, I spend a lot of time in China. I think this is a country, first of all, where the bulk of the victims on that plane, presumed victims, are Chinese, more than 150 people. You have a lot of very emotional victim, victims' family members and just members of the general public who want to know what happened with this plane. It'd be tremendous risk for the government to release photos that turned out to be a red-herring and it would be a loss of face as well.

So I think that's a sign that they did at least some of their homework but they may not be sure either because we also noticed that Chinese state media is not leading with this as a headline. It's not on the headlines of the newspapers or on Chinese state media broadcast. So, you know, that maybe a sign of some caution on their part as well.

MORGAN: One of the main problems with all of this particularly for these poor families waiting for news has been the hopelessly conflicted informational -- disinformation has been pouring out from the Malaysian officials, the Malaysian government and so on. That really has been unhelpful to everyone concerned, doesn't it?

SCIUTTO: No question. This is a classic example of a conflict, right? You have Chinese -- the Chinese government releasing evidence that this flight went down to the south and east of that last contact when the transponder went off. You had the Malaysian Military Air Force in the last 24, 48 hours talking about this radar data that put hundreds of miles to the south and west. In fact on the other side, as you look at that map there, that Malay Peninsula out even into the Indian Ocean.

You know, it's always looking for a needle in a haystack. Right now, you're looking for a needle in two haystacks. And worries about cooperation here because there were also questions about how quickly the Malaysian Air Force share that radar data that we've been talking about and reporting on in the last 24 hours.

MORGAN: Jim Sciutto, thank you very much indeed.

I want to bring in now science educator Bill Nye, also Jim Tilmon a retired American Airlines Pilot and Aviation Expert and Fran Townsend CNN National Security Analyst and Homeland Security Adviser to President George W. Bush. Welcome to all of you.

Jim Tilmon, let me start with you. You're a very experienced pilot. Yesterday, we were working on a theory that had come from -- comments from Malaysian officials that this plane had taken a massive detour almost on a U-turn and gone way off course for hundreds of miles.

Now we have images released by the Chinese which if they are genuine, it would seem to suggest the plane had in fact stayed on course and we're therefore getting two completely different versions of events. What do you read into this? JIM TILMON, AVIATION EXPERT, RETIRED AMERICAN AIRLINES PILOT: I read the fact that this conflicting information, I read in the fact that this is a very frustrating investigation and I wonder who's really running it because even this satellite imagery, and I really hope it's correct, I really am and that'll make things so much better, we would have a chance to nail down some things.

But the more I study it and I'm not a radar expert but I can tell you the more I study it and lay eyes, it looks like it's the wrong size, the wrong -- everything else to be the parts of the airplane.

I know this airplane very well and I got to tell you I can't think of parts that are going to be something in a neighborhood of 70 by 70 feet. It's -- that's really an odd ball shape.

But anyway, I think the thing that's really stands out on this whole thing is the lack of real control at some point where somebody's making conscious right decisions and giving us information we can rely on.

MORGAN: Fran Townsend, in relation to the Chinese having these images for a few days and they were releasing them today. There is a theory that they did this so they wouldn't tip off over countries that they have satellite capability like this. It would seem to be a very political maneuver that wouldn't be in the best interest of people trying to. What is the American view of this at high level?

FRAN TOWNSEND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: You know, Piers, look, the Chinese are very militarily capable and so no question that they have very sophisticated satellite, technical capability and analytic capability.

For one, you would have had to gone through the images over a period of time since the plane disappeared and as you've seen physically it's hard to find. By the way, going over these -- pouring over these very carefully, the satellite images is a time consuming process. So we shouldn't presume they had them and they held them. It may have taken them a while to understand what they had. That's the first piece.

The second piece is you can't presume that the images you're seeing were precisely what was captured. If the Chinese captured these with a very sophisticated, technical capability they may not want to release publicly the pure image itself. They could release images that allowed investigators to know the general vicinity and the timing of that image. But you might not have wanted to know the general public to know the angle, you might not have wanted them to know the actual sort of the how refined your capability is, you know, how far can you see and what degree of visibility.

And so for a whole bunch of intelligence gathering reasons, you might want to have wanted to mask the real depths of the Chinese capability. They would have to have done that then before they released it all of which adds to the delay you're talking about.

MORGAN: OK. Bill Nye, look, we've spent days now trying to make sense of what is at the moment, nonsensical. You're a scientist, you actually worked at Boeing. You worked under the black boxes for a while so you're a good guy to ask about this. What is your gut tell you has happened here?

BILL NYE, SCIENCE EDUCATOR: I think that the plane -- I would not be surprised to find that those satellite images do represent some part of the plane and that those images have not been -- the full resolution hasn't been released by the Chinese government or the Chinese space administration because there's a big thing in spy satellites. You don't want the other guy to know what you know. And I bet you -- it's not unreasonable to me rather that somebody in the Chinese space administration or the military space administration in China figured that people would find this plane in a pre-straight forward fashion.

And the thing that would lead you to that plane would, to my way of thinking, would be the pinger. This is a device not as big as your fist that makes a loud ringing sound underwater. If you can get a hydrophone or a microphone that works underwater near that thing you will find it. And it's very reasonable to me that the Chinese space authorities that whether they're going to find it we don't need to release this image.

And two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese nationals. After a while, somebody, I'm going to throw this out in middle management say we got to release these images.

MORGAN: And it maybe possible that they have much better images.

NYE: Yes.

MORGAN: Which they didn't want people to know because they would reveal too much of their machinery.

NYE: You know, I've spent a lot of time with UFO images and these -- when you look closely at that, it looks like the triangular or the three dots are somewhat detuned. Now, this is speculation.

MORGAN: Right. But it wouldn't ...

NYE: We can't help it. We just can't help it.

MORGAN: But it wouldn't make any difference because they've given the coordinates of where they were taken therefore it wouldn't hamper now ...

NYE: So we need to get ...

MORGAN: ... research.

NYE: ... a microphone near that.

MORGAN: But, you know, Jim Tilmon, let me come back to you. You're not the only pilot and aviation expert I've heard in the last few hours saying you just don't believe the pictures that we can see or be it blurry ones could be parts of this particular plane because the shape just does not seem right.

TILMON: Well, it doesn't. And you get so cynical after a while, after being disappointed because they keep giving us information that it turns out to be wrong and then they contradict themselves and it's like a very, very frustrating procedure that we're going through.

I would acknowledge that a lot that you just heard from these other two people is perhaps true. It's very good analysis and everything else. I hope that they're right. I hope this is part of the airplane. It's going to solve a lot of problems and at least get us some place where we can pinpoint and say this is something we can rely on. I've had so little to rely on since I've been investigating this business until -- it's unbelievable.

MORGAN: Let me ask you think Jim Tilmon, if it has held its course as these images that they turn out to be parts of the plane would lead us to believe. In other words, it didn't take this huge detour and that was just daft information from Malaysian officials.

If it held its course, would that lend more support to it being some kind of catastrophic mechanical failure than any terrorist action or would it not make much difference either way?

TILMON: Well, it probably would make a lot of difference either way but I got to tell you, you're right. We go back to square one where we have something catastrophic that happen just as they were being turned over to the other air traffic control, as they were being handed off to the Vietnamese air traffic control. They came out with one final roger and then silence and the transponders went offline. All those things happened simultaneously.

So I still feel very strongly that we have something that happened that was really catastrophic, something they didn't prepare for, something they weren't aware was going to happen and it happens to suddenly and so completely that they were not able to cope with it, to fly and they weren't able to transmit their information.

MORGAN: And in all your experience, if it was some kind of mechanical failure; i.e. an accident. What would cause such a catastrophic failure that no one was able to make any kind of distress signal and there would be no trace of it?

TILMON: Well, I've been running that in my brain now ever since this thing happened. There's -- one possibility would be a total electrical failure which is very, very hard to imagine because it has so many generators coming from different places, they even have -- if all the engine generators fail they still have what's called the rack. That's the generator that literally falls out of the bottom of the airplane, has a propeller on it and ram-air turns that and gives them generating power enough to go ahead and fly the airplane safely.

So I'm saying, you know, electrical failure, it have to be totally, it had to be absolutely incredible like we've not heard of before. Emergency decompression could be something that could happen but even there you, you know, you only have about 12, 15 seconds of air that you can breathe safely before you have to go on oxygen. If they were delaying to get their oxygen mask on, the crew would be incapacitated and almost anything could happen from that point forward. But these are -- you have to go crazy with speculation before you finish this.

MORGAN: OK. Bill, I wasn't going to let you go but you're clear about that. But actually stay with me because we're going to be joined after the break but -- we'll take a short break, Bill. When we come back, I'll get your reaction to that, stay with me. Fran and Jim, you stay with because we're going to be joined by Philip Baum too who's the Editor for Aviation Security International.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MORGAN: And back to our breaking news tonight.

Satellite images, the Chinese say it may show what's left of missing Flight 370 that they approve to be the real deal. What aren't they telling us about what really happen?

Well, joining me now is Philip Baum, he's the Editor of Aviation Security International. And back with me Bill Nye, Jim Tilmon and Fran Townsend.

A very interesting question here and I may put this to you Bill Nye first. This is from Sherry Rosenbaum (ph) who's tweeted me. One expert that had pieces that big came from the airplane they'll be too heavy to float no mention about it said (ph) to this. Pretty point, if any it's 70 foot by 70 foot would be it sitting there?

NYE: We're all speculating. What if they are rafts? What if they are gas-filled wings that broke off and float because the kerosene, the jet fuel is less dense than water?

But I want to ask Jim a question. Would you agree that when stuff goes wrong on planes there's two things that make things go wrong on planes; maintenance and then a series of small things that just got out of hand, one thing leads to another and it gets away from you.

TILMON: I've never heard of an aviation accident where one thing made the difference. As a matter of fact, it's almost always a series of events. And if you change anyone of those items along that chain of events: no accident.

So yes, you're right. It had to be some kind of a series of things that happen one after another and lined up just right for the perfect storm.

MORGAN: But let me ask you -- let me ask you this then Jim, if that is the case and that's a fascinating answer and a great question, Bill. If that is the case, why would nobody on the plane have signaled any of these problems to anybody outside the plane, you know, back at the airline or wherever? Why would there just be nothing?

TILMON: It would -- this would not be the first accident where we didn't get any kind of response from the cockpit. If they're busy up there because they've got a problem they're dealing with, flying the airplane is their major objective, that's the first thing and the last thing they want to do.

So, communication, sure. They would get to that but before then they maybe too busy to talk to anybody just trying to handle the emergency. So I don't ...

MORGAN: OK.

TILMON: ... put too much weight into that. I just simply say whatever it was it was awful.

MORGAN: OK. Philip Baum, I want to bring you an Editor of Aviation Security International.

The whole aviation industry has been buzzing about this story now for days. I've read a million theories most of which can be discounted, some of which can't be discounted obviously and we are in the speculation business. I know as much about what happened as you do as Bill Nye does, as any of the viewers but we have to speculate because only through asking questions can we possibly get to some kind of helpful answer.

From the aviation industry experts that you've talked to, what is the most regular theory that you're hearing that makes the most sense?

PHILIP BAUM, EDITOR, AVIATION SECURITY INTERNATIONAL: OK. Well, I'm primarily dealing with the security space. So -- and evermore so since the Malaysians themselves came out 36 hours ago and so that they were looking at four scenarios; hijacking, sabotage, and psychological or personal problems amongst passengers and crew.

Certainly, a lot of the people I'm speaking to are seriously worried that there maybe something like pilot suicide as an issue here that would give every explanation as to why there would be no communication from the aircraft. It wouldn't be the first time.

In November last year, we had a Mozambique Airlines pilot who decided to crash his aircraft and everybody on board died when the plane crashed in Namibia, EgyptAir out of New York, SilkAir, Royal Air Maroc. There had been a number of incidents like that.

So the problem is at the moment, until we find the wreckage we're not going to know.

MORGAN: OK. Let me stop you there. Let me stop you there. Let me stop you there.

Philip, let me ask you a follow-up on that specific point because that's a very interesting response that you've given. But in those other circumstances you just listed, was there no warning in any of those either at all to anybody that this was happening?

BAUM: Well, if you are dealing with hijackers on board in aircraft, whether it was an organized gang, or whether it was some psychologically disturbed individual that if somebody managed to gain access to the flight they can neutralize the crew but then again there wouldn't necessarily be any communication at all as we witnessed on September the 11th.

If there was a explosive decompression, if a bomb detonated onboard the aircraft then again there would be no communication, you only have to look a Pan Am 103 or the Lockerbie, no communication in that instance.

MORGAN: OK.

BAUM: I think those that in the industry ...

MORGAN: Is the ...

BAUM: ... if you're thinking about the bomb theatrics slightly less credible but as you would've expected to found debris by now in the crash of that.

MORGAN: OK. Let me bring back Jim Tilmon. The pilot's home apparently has been searched as you might expect for any clues at all and they found a flight simulator at his home. Should we be reeling anything into that? Is that common? Do many pilots have simulators at home?

TILMON: I didn't read anything into it in the beginning because some pilots do like to have that kind of thing (inaudible) they're going to be flying the next month into an airport they haven't been in before, they can program that and get some experience in doing that in practice.

But then I rethought it and I wondered if this pilot really had some plan in mind about what he was going to do that was going to deviate from all the things that he'd been taught. For example, duck under the radar and fly it 500 feet off the ground or whatever else. He would need to practice and he's got the equipment to do that with.

MORGAN: OK. Let me turn to Fran Townsend. Lots and lots of theories, Fran, there were precious little facts emerging. From the assumption, let's walk on the assumption here that has been some kind of terror act. What are you hearing from your sources about if that is a theory, who would have anything to gain by doing this? Given the two-thirds of the passengers are Chinese?

TOWNSEND: You know, first of all, you ask yourself if this was a terrorist attack, whom is the most likely to have that sort of capability to organize that -- organize themselves to have sufficient strength and capability on the plane to get past security, to get on the air, to get into the cockpit to do it.

You know, you talked last night about one of these pilots having allowing the passengers to sit inside the cockpit. Those are the source of vulnerabilities in terms of looking for an opportunity.

But, you know, I'll tell you there are not many groups when you look at state sponsors, you look at capable terror groups like Al Qaeda, like Hezbollah. But it's not -- there aren't a lot. And frankly, it doesn't make sense to me that by now you wouldn't have a claim of responsibility. I mean the whole purpose of launching a terror attack is to instill fear, to take credit, to recruit and to raise finances. And so, none of that if you don't take credit if you forgot (ph) what the success of attack.

MORGAN: OK. Fran, what about the Iranian ...

BAUM: Sorry, Piers, can I cut in?

MORGAN: Yeah. Yeah, cut in. Sorry.

BAUM: Piers, I mean there is one group. I mean, the East Turkistan Islamic movement that is campaigning for the interdependent of Xinjang region from Xinjang province from China that has already tried to destroy two airliners. They tried on a flight from Urumqi to Beijing using a female suicide individual (inaudible) to destroy a China southern aircraft.

Almost six years to the day before the lost of MH370. And then a Tianjin Airlines flight, they tried a group of individuals who managed to conceal their prohibited items inside crutches when they trade themselves to be handicapped individuals. They've tried it before and only on the first of March in Kunming they carried out a terrorist attack in a train station. If they want international credibility as an organization then maybe they've taken their flight international.

Why Malaysia? Well, New Year's Eve last year, the Malaysian government deported six ethnic Uyghurs back to China which causes huge controversy internationally. So that -- it is only a possibility but there is definitely one group that might want to go down that road.

MORGAN: Yeah. And the other -- that's a very interesting thing you just said. I was going to ask Fran about the Iranian links simply because you've got these two young Iranians with stolen passports on the flight. It appears to be discounted because they've worked out where they were going on what they're potential motive was as an assailant (ph) and so on. But it comes in the same week that Al Jazeera added a documentary which seemed to point to new evidence that the Iranians maybe behind the Lockerbie aircraft bombing rather than as it's been thought for many years for Libyans.

So you have, if that is true, a potential link nothing more than that of if it is Iranian involvement then doing an atrocity and not claiming responsibility.

TOWNSEND: That's right, Piers. It maybe that that really is just a coincidence, that Lockerbie report, and these two young Iranians who were traveling on false passports.

I'll tell, you know, you talk to security and intelligence officials here in the United States and all seemed reasonably satisfied that they have run all of the information, all of the related leads to those two individuals who turn out they were on false passports on the wrong flight and now are part of the missing victims.

MORGAN: Fran Townsend, thank you very much. Jim Tilmon, thank you very much and Philip Baum thank you very much. Bill Nye, you're going to stay with me and we'll come back a bit later to talk about more of this.

But after the break, I'll talk to a woman who's husband was on board Flight 370 and left his wedding ring and watch at home for their two young sons in case anything happen to him. She'll talk to me live after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MORGAN: The families of 239 people who are onboard Flight 370 awaiting for word tonight and hoping that their worse fears don't come true.

Danica Weeks is one of those. Her husband Paul is a mechanical engineer who is on his way to a job in Mongolia. Before he left, he took off his wedding ring and his watch and told his wife to give him to his young sons if something happens to him.

And Danica Weeks joins me now via Skype. Live from her home in Perth, Australia.

Danica Weeks, thank you so much for joining me and let me say at the very start of this how all our hearts go out to you and to all the families waiting for some news, any news of what has happened.

First of all, how are you coping with your two young children with this devastating news?

DANICA WEEKS, HUSBAND WAS ONBOARD MALAYSIA AIRLINES FLIGHT 370: Yeah, not well. We're taking it slowly. I'm just trying to keep myself distracted, but I'm sure every family member is at some -- you just tale the news and then I'm trying not to take too much of it because it's a bit of a roller coaster. One minute, it's this, and the next minute, that's not confirmed.

So, yes, but that's the toughest part everyday waking up and just -- and speaking, you know, looking on the news and thing that, you know, there's nothing and there's no calls from Malaysia to say, "We found something." God, everyday just seems like it's an eternity, it's an actual eternity (ph).

And each can only go minute by minute and then just try and get through the day. And I hope something comes soon. We're wishing for the biggest (inaudible) but, you know, it's not looking (inaudible). Down the track, it's not looking (inaudible).

MORGAN: Your husband Paul, he left for a job in Mongolia. It's a 28- day job with Transwest Mongolia, a mining and construction equipment company. You've got two young sons, Lincoln who is three, and Jack is who is just 10 months.

Before he left, Paul left you his watch and he also left you other items to your kids. Why did he do that do you think?

WEEKS: Look, we had a car accident on December 30th, and so, I'm just glad we've got to talk about these things and now our plans, should something happen to us because we would fight, you know, after that we sort to have a reality check that one of us could go or both of us.

And he obviously, you know, on the mining site, he can't take his ring, he can't wear it on the mining site so he said to me, (inaudible) leaving it so I'm going to leave my wedding ring here. It's no use leaving it in my room on the site. So, I'm going to leave my wedding ring and my watch and should anything happen to me, I want the ring to go to the first son that's married and the watch to the second.

And I said something to him like, "Don't be stupid. Just you know, just come back and I'll give it back to you and you can give it to me. And so I'm going to (inaudible) I'm praying that, you know, I can give it back to him so I can hold on to it.

Because I -- there's no finality to it and we're not getting any information and whether they know anything and they're not telling us at this stage. But it's just blank, just blank waiting and praying.

MORGAN: What kind of man is Paul?

WEEKS: He's amazing. He's amazing. He is the most amazing husband and the most amazing father. He's been just so much time with his kids. I mean he always bath them every night. He takes Lincoln to golf. He would take them to the zoo and Lincoln (inaudible) it was just like Lincoln was his little shadow.

And of course Jack, he's just a (inaudible) Jack. And he was extremely intelligent and he worked hard and he just tried to do everything right for his family, his whole -- all the jobs, everything he does he always thought about us and he was doing this for the right reason. It was his dream job and he'd worked weeks and you know (inaudible) time to get up just stayed and you know, (inaudible) hit the ground running. So, that's the kind of man he was.

You know, and he was strong ever since he's with army and you know, they train, they train them. They're very strong. They try to be strongly be it (ph). So, you know, he had strength character. He's just so much -- he's my best friend and my soul mate and I just can't wait for him to come back. I hope, I hope. I can't but ...

MORGAN: I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry for you, Danica. It's awfully heartbreaking listening to you talking. I can't even imagine that the agony of sitting there was just this no information with the whole world speculating. That's all anybody can do because nobody knows what has happened here and it's such a freakish situation and you're right at the sharp end of this. And it can be nobody watching this who isn't feeling as affected as I am by what you're clearly going through.

The last contact you have with Paul was I think an email that he sent just before he got on a plane, was that right?

WEEKS: Yes, yeah. And he sent one just before he left from Perth and that was (inaudible) because I had to leave and go to (inaudible). I mean, we cried when he leave. I mean, this is a big change for the family and to be going to fly and fly out.

And we prepared Lincoln, you know, (inaudible) to Skype him and map with you know, where daddy was going to be. And like we said goodbye and I, of course, I burst into tears and so I didn't probably got to stop, you know, be strong for Lincoln. Don't, you know, let this affect him.

And so, he sent us a message from the (inaudible) saying "Miss you already" and we went off to soccer (ph) and he said, "You know, you and the boys are my world." And you know, "I'm looking forward. I'll speak to you soon" and send another message.

Anyway, he sent another one from -- just before he got on the flight. He go to Beijing and again because I'd written one back to him and in between telling him what we've been up to.

And he wrote, you know, "I love you again," and you know, "you complete me." And I think the last line was this caps says "one day, so that means, it's only 27 days until I see you all again. Lots of love, Paul."

So, yeah, it's some -- that was the last (inaudible) he just didn't have a phone communicating by email. So that's the last I have from him.

MORGAN: And Danica, let me ask you this. Several of the families, I think at the Chinese end claimed that they have been able to dial or to call the cellphones and had got a dialing tone. Did you try to do that with Paul, did he have a cellphone.

WEEKS: No, well he didn't. And I -- that was the thing that reached (inaudible) as soon as I heard that. And I thought, oh my gosh, I can't even, you know, take my surface and just see if he emailed me. But, you know, you can only do that so long. And in the course, I've got nothing.

But I had no phone. I've got no phone. He hand it back his work phone and was anticipating getting a new phone so at that stage. And he didn't know what would work in Mongolia. He needed to settle that up and speak with the team over the year at Transwest. So, I am, you know, all those stuff has been (inaudible). So, I couldn't even thought, oh gosh, you now, it would just be amazing to try it but, you know, he didn't have one with him. And of course, what I'm trying to do with anyone else.

They did offer for us to go there and be on the ground and get an updates. But, just that I couldn't get on with my two young sons and post family too. Borders help being there where, I mean, we're facing up and down a half year and at least from familiar surroundings. We have (inaudible) people there. You know, I can't, you know, I know what they're going through but to be over there in the midst of this, it would just be too much, you know. But it keeps some abnormality for my sons.

MORGAN: And in terms of the information that you are getting, have you had any calls at all from anybody at the airline informing you of any updates?

MORGAN: No, they did. I mean, they were calling me quite often to begin with. We didn't hear from them. I thought I had to chase them down. I was just thinking as to wanting how you sort of it's being a blur so I'm going back over, over what happened. And I contact the media (inaudible) for Australia first. They put me on to New Zealand and then the councilor of course contacted me and said can I give your details to them.

And I'm like, well, yes, of course. Would someone, you know, someone please tell us something. We found out by our reporter that something had happened to the plane. So they, you know, from there, they weren't some constant contacts, but when they were ringing and you know, they were doing too early. But, they had no information.

And so, you know, every time that phone rings, of course, you know, my heart jumps very much. Tonight, I think is the search. So, she -- I did asked -- I've spoken with Miriam (ph), the lady here I'm in contact with and see -- look -- just takes me, but, she has to -- I mean, waking up every morning and of course reporters have been going, you know, being nice enough to inform me what's going on because I can't look it out myself. And so, no, look, I have heard nothing, nothing today. So, they don't have this new information. You know, I don't know. I got nothing from them today, nothing yet.

MORGAN: And Danica, I know that you're clutching the ring that Paul left. I also know that as a family, you've survived earthquakes in New Zealand and a car accident, you know, you have a lot of luck in your lives. You must just be sitting there, I guess, praying that you get some luck here and that this ends somehow not in the way that you fear, but, I just don't know what to say to you. I just hope that somehow, you get something which gives you some kind of peace of mind because it's a devastating situation that you and your family are in.

WEEKS: I can't (inaudible) and I can't (inaudible). As time goes on, I mean, I'm not, you know, just alluded by the fact that if this case are on -- is (inaudible) by its chance of finding anything, but, just -- because there is no (inaudible) and I can't give up and I can't, you know, sort of think at what stage (inaudible) for this but if (inaudible) in what stage, you can sort of let go, but I don't even want to let go. So, it's going to be just (inaudible) and then pray for them, but just have to keep hoping. By now, it's getting -- some of my (inaudible) is going, you know, it's getting slimmer and so that my heart just won't let go and I've got my two kids to leave the house to look at tonight (ph) that they've been (inaudible) from such an amazing father and amazing man, and you know, that's just too much. I just -- I'm just going to take it slowly. I'm afraid.

MORGAN: Danica, thank you so much. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak to me. I don't know how you even conduct an interview given what is going to your mind. I do appreciate it. We will continue to try and get any information that we can, everyone in CNN will, everyone else, and the other news networks just try and get some answers to questions you must be resting with every second of the day and I just wish you and your family all the very best and hope that you get the answers and are related. Thank you very much. WEEKS: Thank you. Thank you for your time.

MORGAN: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MORGAN: On breaking news tonight. China says they can't confirm the satellite images that we've seen tonight are connected to the missing plane. Another report from Reuters that the Vietnamese have searched the area and are now sending another plane.

Well, joining me now, the man who discovered the wreck of the Titanic, Bob Ballard. Bob, we spoke last night before we saw these images. When you saw them in the water, what was your reaction?

BOB BALLARD, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR OCEAN EXPLORATION, UNIV. OF RHODE ISLAND: Well, I wouldn't be surprised if they are the wreckage there. You know, compared to what we knew yesterday, we're so confusing that turning, the thoughtful -- the thought that they might have seen at -- in the Malacca Strait. But, now, the dots are starting to connect. If you plot where they went down, if you plot where the Chinese images are coming from, and don't forget the Mike McKay's observation from that oil platform where he saw the fire in the sky on a bearing of 265.

If you plot that, they are all converging on a spot. The thing I would like to see is the latitude and longitude of the Vietnamese oil slick shortly after it went down because when we searched for the Turkish fighter jet of Syria that the Syrian shutdown, the wreckage was directly beneath the oil slick.

MORGAN: And Bill Nye is with me mentioned to ask you whether the -- you knew any of the American navy are out there and he said that using hydrophone which is a very sophisticated form of tracking underwater.

BALLARD: Well, they certainly have that capability. I think, initially, what they've been trying to do is find wreckage and they've been out there with very high quality search radars for wreckage on the surface. But I think the time has come now that they can at least name (ph) for the underwater device. I think my -- I would think they were starting to get a box that we can start to search. So, that's what -- I would begin the actual search operation in the area of the reported last as well as where the Vietnamese airplanes saw the oil slick.

Because if you know anything about the circulation of the current this time a year in that area, it's counter clockwise. And so, it makes sense that the debris would be to the east and south of the impact site and that's where the Chinese images are coming from. And I would agree with Bill, all bet (ph) that they have a lot better images and in fact those images might be conclusively showing that is wreckage.

MORGAN: Well, Bob, I thank you very much again for joining me tonight. When we come back, we'll get back to Bill Nye about the so called black box. Bill Nye is to work on the black box's full Boeing, and he's here for an expert in this area. And maybe we can try and get some (inaudible) how that can help find Flight 370.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MORGAN: Giving the satellite images we're looking at tonight do show the wreckage of the missing plane, they still don't tell the whole story. Would the so called black boxes answer all the questions about what happened to Flight 370. Well, back with me now is Bill Nye.

Bill, you worked at Boeing and you also worked separately on black boxes tell me exactly your experience and what you make of the importance right now of one of these, these black boxes.

BILL NYE, SCIENCE EDUCATOR: Well ...

MORGAN: Well, they're not black it's a (inaudible).

NYE: Well, a black box because you don't know what's inside, that's all. But in here is -- they're bright orange. So if you are a diver under water, you might find them, or in land, that you can find them. But the idea is -- they -- you've heard of the flight data recorder, it keeps track. The least important thing you might argue that it keeps track of is the voices in the cockpit. It keeps track of all sorts of other data on the plane, the position of all the control surfaces, the throttle and so on.

And the thing in this thin outer shell is a virtually indestructible cassette. It's called this titanium thing that has the information. And then also there'll be a pinger which should makes the -- a pinging sound ...

MORGAN: And that last about month, right?

NYE: About a month, several weeks under water, yeah, and so ...

MORGAN: So, if they get near it, they should be able to hear this.

NYE: Absolutely. And you know, the U.S. Navy for example can get there with a helicopter, lower this hydrophone in an underwater microphone in the water and listen for it.

MORGAN: So, if it is where these images are and they track it down, they'll be able to find it from the pinger.

NYE: I'm sure of it. And the other thing is -- I just want to point out that things that go along with planes or maintenance. So, this airworthiness directive, this AD, as it's called. If that was not addressed and something was wrong in the cockpit, they we're distracted, they didn't have good cockpit security, maybe just an unruly passenger distracting them for long enough, then one thing can lead to another. And there are that's just surprising things, there's no wreckage spread out all over the place unless that image is wreckage. Then maybe ...

MORGAN: Tell me this ...

NYE: ... Sullenberger just have -- I mean., landed very well in the Hudson River.

MORGAN: And he had no time to give any warning ...

NYE: Absolutely.

MORGAN: I'd like to point that out. But in terms of this (inaudible) Bill, what will strike people as quite bizarre and will be surprising is that, you have these black boxes which just got better and better over the years. Why is there nothing inside them that can send a direct signal back to world ...

NYE: Oh, there is.

MORGAN: ... about where the plane is?

NYE: Oh there is. But when it's under water then you rely on the pinger. In the sky, you rely on radio. Underwater, the pinger and it's down there.

MORGAN: It's an extraordinary mystery Bill. And I thank you for ...

NYE: Thank you.

MORGAN: ... explaining so much for us, much appreciated. Well be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MORGAN: Taking with breaking news on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight. China says it can't confirm the satellite images we've seen tonight are connected to the missing plane. And a second report from Reuters of the Vietnamese have searched the area and are now sending another plane, that more contradictory reports.

Tomorrow, much more on Flight 370. Where is that plane? Satellite images, the search, and the latest on what happened to it and the 239 people on board. It will all be here right tomorrow night.