it was on its way to beijing from kuala lumpur. the plane is believed to have last made contact with air traffic control in vietnamese air space, more than 11 hours ago. that was about two hours after leaving kuala lumpur when it would have been cruising and we are told it was cruising at 36,000 feet. families of the missing have been fearing the worst. these are pictures from earlier from the beijing airport. david mackenzie just report of the families have now been taken to a hotel in beijing. china has deployed two ships to search the south china sea along with the vietnamese officials and those search and rescue efforts the airline ceo has been concentrating on. >> our focus now is to work with the emergency responders and mobilize full support. and our thoughts and prayers are with all affected passengers and crew and their family members. >> a little bit earlier when we were covering this story, my colleague spoke with the man who attended. >> we learned a lot that we already knew from the news conference. but we didn't learn

if life with the kuala lumpur international airport and forty one minutes up the big noise baking time said today it was expected to lead them by teaching at six thirty am contact was lost when the plane was flying over the protein in air traffic controller area in vietnam at one twenty i am on board on twelve crew members and two hundred and twenty seven passages than a hundred and fifty four from china now let's say i go to a press conference and while the kuala lumpur are being given by my laces to pop and all civil aviation the haze is in a few. today he said then i fed the line islands i think he will be sioux city iowa. the cd. he does what and who i was a lousy and eighty six a letter dated the twenty one the man who died monday. it was if they'd let us buy a yellow bar. he was fine then. today on my phone. he said. thankfully he didn't get the game. i love but he said wednesday. he won his last friday. he's the one hour. he said. how put into play said yes. he did the feeling that i'm fine with it. you have less obvious than that either way so be it. by day by day. i'm happy. i

we are live from kuala lumpur. >> this is al jazeera america, live from doha. also ahead on the program. a moment of silence in japan. marking the third anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that killed 18,000 people. crimea's new army agrees to employ a russian commander in chief - taking the region further away from ukraine. >> venezuela people struggling to find the medicine they desperately need - another reason to protest. >> malaysia has doubled the area, searching to find a passenger plane that disappeared on saturday. the 239 people on board flight mh370 left kuala lumpur bound for beijing, but disappeared over the south china sea. the search area expanded into a 200km radius from where the plane made contact. a massive area in the western side of malaysia and the mainland, in case the plane dried to turn around. malaysian authorities have given more information about the two stolen passports used to board the aircraft. >> scott heidler has more. >> for the first time details about the two men who travelled with the stolen passports. >> we looked at

paula hancocks, cnn, kuala lumpur, malaysia. >> and that is cnn newsroom. thank you for watching. i'm natalie allen. for our u.s. viewers, our cnn special report is next. for international viewers, stay with us for open court. >>> a high tech aircraft. an experienced crew. and 227 passengers. what began as a routine flight for malaysian airlines 370 became the total opposite. leaving behind unending grief and unanswered questions. flight 370, the final hours. here in the cockpit of this

our saima mohsin is live in kuala lumpur. she has been following the investigation into these pilots. what do we know this morning, saima? >> reporter: well, so far, john, i've been speaking to members of the political party, the people's justice party, that captain zaharie was, i'm told by a friend of his, a silent member of. i've just spoken to a politician from that party who says, look, he was a member of the party, yes. he came to our events. he was socially active, too. he was part of the people that want to make a change for malaysia, and it's as simple as that, within a democratic system. i said to him straight up, was he an extremist? does he have extremist views? he said, no. it's absolutely absurd to think that or suggest it. so, it's very difficult here to find any kind of motive or intention or were there psychological problems amongst any of those people inside that cockpit. now, by all accounts, captain zaharie so far, i've been looking into him over the past four days, seemed like a normal family man who loved

we'll go to kuala lumpur for a live update. "way too early" will be right back after this. chunky spicy chicken quesadilla soup. she gives me chunky before every game. i'm very souperstitious. haha, that's a good one! haha! [ male announcer ] campbell's chunky soup. it fills you up right. [ male announcer ] campbell's chunky soup. i tr ied [ male announcer ] campbell's chunky soup. depend last weekend. it really made the difference between a morning around the house and getting a little exercise. unlike the bargain brand, depend gives you new fit-flex®, our best protection. it's a smooth and comfortable fit with more lycra strands. get your free sample at depend.com. yeah? then how'd i get this... [ voice of dennis ] ...safe driving bonus check? every six months without an accident, allstate sends a check. silence. are you in good hands? >>> welcome back everybody. at the top of the show we talked about the possibility of debris discovered off the coast of australia that could belong to missing airlines flight 370. if you want to sound smart today, tell your friends at wor

kate is back in kuala lumpur tomorrow. now time for "newsroom" with carol costello. >> good morning. have a great day. "newsroom" starts now. >>> happening now in the "newsroom," breaking overnight, the search expands again. 25 countries now looking at an area the size of the lower 48. >> we're here at the military air base at the airport. this is the center of the international search and rescue operation. >> also developing this morning, the grief grows. families demanding answers as suspicion grows around the pilots. >> someone on the plane put into the computer system that sits between the pilots a new direction for the plane to go in. >> how seven key strokes could have changed everything. you're live in the cnn "newsroom "newsroom." >>> good morning. i'm carol costello. thank you so much for joining me. for the first time, a foreign government is admitting the military radar picked up malaysian flight 370 before and after the plane's transponder was turned off. we know at 1:22 a.m., march 8, saturday, the missing pla

rosa. >> jim clancy live in kuala lumpur. thank you so much. >>> well, the questions that a lot of people are asking this morning, why this investigation is taking so long. with the malaysians seem to have waited so long before looking into the pilots or contacting other foreign governments. cnn national security analyst fran townssend, tells bill weir this would be a different investigation if that happened in the united states. >> the malaysians said it happened march 9th but they didn't search them until the 15th. that's a loss of six days. we're used to in this country, we conduct sort of a tragic air investigation we start both the investigation and the search separation simultaneously, as soon as we're notified of the event. and it doesn't appear, at least what we're seeing, that happened by the malaysians. there's been a delay in the investigation and that, frankly, is to the detriment of the investigation and the families of the victims. >> now, among the passengers on flight 370, was philip wood, an ibm employee, fly

in fact, the other hotel in here in kuala lumpur also has the same. just in case they have some sort of stress so they can rush them off to some other place. also up in beijing, the hotel up there today after news came out, the police escorted the family members out so they can avoid the media. all the photographers and reporters that were crowding around them. we're waiting to see how they feel today. their dream was that this plane would land safely someplace and they would find their loved ones in it. if there is debris in the water, that of course, dan, could change everything. >> got to be so difficult for them. thank you, bob. we'll be right back. when jake and i first set out on our own, we ate anything. but in time you realize the better you eat, the better you feel. these days we both eat smarter. and i give jake purina cat chow naturals. made with real chicken and salmon, it's high in protein like a cat's natural diet. and no added artificial flavors. we've come a long way. and whatever's ahead, we'll be there for each other. naturally. puri

our jim clancy in kuala lumpur. thank you so much for covering that news conference from malaysian officials. the news just in from that news conference, they say that the pilot's flight simulator has had some data deleted. they are working to retrieve that, that, as a u.s. official tells cnn they're trying to narrow the search area with the focus being in the southern arc of that search area. these are the angles we're going to follow up on because there are breaking developments this morning. we'll have that right after this. sneeze... [ sneezes ] [ male announcer ] you may be an allergy muddler. try zyrtec® for powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin® because it starts working faster on the first day you take it. zyrtec®. love the air. [ sneezes ] on the first day you take it. thcar loan didn't start here. it started with that overdue bill he never got. checking his experian credit report and score allowed him to identify and better address the issue. then drive off into the sunset. ex

cnn kuala lumpur. >> cnn will continue to cover this airlines mystery. you can always head to cnn.com if you're away from the tell to get the latest of the investigation and search. we'll have the latest videos and reports. cnn.com. >>> the top i ddiplomats from u russia are set to discuss the cry isis in ukraine face to fac today. that's coming up. >>> we'll bring you a live report after this. [ molly ] this is one way to keep your underwear clean. here's another. try charmin ultra strong. it cleans so well and you can use up to four times less than the leading bargain brand. thanks mom! make me proud honey! [ female announcer ] charmin ultra strong has a duraclean texture that's soft and more durable to help your kids get clean while still using less. and it's four times stronger than the leading bargain brand. so you can keep the biggest kids in the family clean too. [ laughter ] [ female announcer ] used by more plumbers than any other brand, try charmin. it's clog-free or it's free. try charmin. hey there, i just got my bill, and i see that it inclu

let me go back to andrew stevens in kuala lumpur. andrew, you're there in malaysia, and there has been some criticism of malaysian authorities for not sharing all of this information with other countries, with other investigations that have now been under way. are they sensitive to some of that criticism? we're hearing about the malaysian investigation. >> reporter: they're definitely sensitive to it. and they come back and say we have been as open as we possibly can, wolf. and they are, quote -- one of the u.s. commanders in the fleet is saying how impressed he is with their handling of the rescue or search operations and the fact that there does seem to be a reasonably open line of communication. but certainly there has been a lot of criticism, particularly from the family members. want to go back to what jim was saying about leaving the door open on the two passport holders. malaysian police over the past 24 hours or so have been steering the line of this investigation into much more of a -- this more likely a people smuggling ope

what have you heard from the families in kuala lumpur? a lot of them traveled from beijing to kuala lumpur hopefully to be closer to the investigators and get more information. do they seem satisfied or are their frustrations boiling over? >> reporter: there are a lot of frustrations. you know, they have had briefing after briefing but they see in this formal press conference where they've been given information, they've been given hope. whether that be debris or hope of a hijacking. it's some kind of connection to flight mh370 and their loved ones and then the problem is that then the next day they're let down again. they don't know what's really going on. there is a lot of frustration. let's not forget, thursday, it's now saturday here, thursday was the first time malaysia airlines or the ministry of transport or anyone from the military actually decided to hold a briefing for relatives here in kuala lumpur so two weeks in, they've had very little direct contact with officials and malaysia airlines didn't go there. there's also added st

from kuala lumpur. are you hearing anything as to whether this plane simply went off radar one hour or two hours after take off or was there a different time frame that's being examined now? >> well, i think that's the same time frame that's being examined right now. very quickly that it seems to just disappear. and that has authorities here baffled, concerned, and of course, the families grief stricken. we're at kuala lumpur international airport. the families have been sequestered away from the media. they are awaiting word. everyone is awaiting word. the ceo of malaysia airlines saying we're not ruling anything out here as they look at this. now, this oil slick that two of them that have been reported, that came from vietnamese search aircra aircraft. and they indicated they thought this might be typical for a plane like this one. so they were making the presumption, if you will, that this was linked to the crash, that this could be the crash site. some 90 miles south of the southern coast of vietnam

kuala lumpur, malaysia. in one of the busiest cities in southeast asia, millions of people are on the move. including phillip wood, a 51-year-old ibm executive. thousands of miles away in beijing, the day begins as usual for his partner, sara bajac. >> i get up early, i drink coffey. we live next to an apple orchard and i do yoga every morning and eat my oatmeal and go to work. >> in the early morning hours, phil will take the red eye home to sara in beijing. the airport at kuala lumpur connects southeast asia to the continent. paul weeks needs to make it thousands of miles inland all the way to mongolia. >> he was doing this for the right reason. >> weeks is an engineer, husband and father of two young boys. >> he would take his kids to the zoo. >> in fact, preparing the boys was a major issue before paul left for his 28-day assignment abroad. >> we cried when he left. this is a big change for the family. we prepared lincoln, you know, to skype him and a map where daddy was going to be. >> when weeks left h

and the truth this morning here in kuala lumpur is that there are no answers here. we are still waiting for that to come as they expand the search area. we are hoping that they will get some answers. they will get some closure. erin. >> thank you very much. >>> i want to bring in formert presidential candidate john huntsman. we don't know what happened to this plane yet. i want to emphasize our sources are waiting and possible the stolen passports related to smuggling operations instetd. wrote 777 crash chance for u.s. to make common cause, befriend china. what is your reaction to that? >> well, thank you for having me. my reaction is this. we have a huge opportunity regardless of the outcome here, regardless of what is found to sure up the counter terrorism collaboration between the united states and china. we have tried in years past in terms of information sharing and intelligence sharing but haven't gotten far. this is a perfect opportunity to take stock of those groups that ought to be monitored and looked at and better understood where we have a capacity where

are you in kuala lumpur, sarah? >> reporter: yes. i'm here. >> you are in front of the hotel where -- >> reporter: i'm actually inside. basically, what's happened is the families have been called. they have been talking to the families. so this is an unusual movement. generally speaking, the families are briefed. they have been very concerned about not getting enough information back. for now, the government of the airlines have been making a concerted information to get them the information before the media, before they have to see it come out on television. this is a development. what the development is, we don't know. we hear from the prime minister but just fact that the prime minister is going to be speaking, who we don't hear from every day. so what is happening is that the hotels in kuala lumpur where the families are, the government has them here. after being in the hotel with the families for several days, that we have seen them go through so much. we saw a woman just yesterday bursting out in tears. all the people around he

andrew stevens reporting for us from kuala lumpur. all of this certainly leaves loved ones of the passengers in excruciating limbo, uncertain of what has become of those on board flight 370 and 239 people were on board that flight. david mckenzie is joining us from beijing. you spoke with the partner of philip wood, one of the three americans on that aircraft. she tells you she believes wood is still alive, right? >> reporter: that's right, wolf. she's certain he's alive based on her logic and on her gut feel. sarah bajc is a former high powered businesswoman, she's now a teacher here in beijing. they were planning to move together to kuala lumpur soon before -- soon after this plane vanished, and she says she believes he's alive and well somewhere out there. >> the entire u.s. population is reliving things like 9/11 in this experience, right? if an unthinkable thing can happen even after we've taken all these precautions, what could happen next? this is a planned activity. somebody wants to do something and make a message out of it.

kuala lumpur air traffic contr control. at that point, before vietnam's air traffic control picked it up, the cockpit, the plane made a left-hand turn, a very deliberate left-hand turn, and preprogrammed ort not, and may not be totally relevant, but they made a deliberate left-hand turn, and the official telling me between two air traffic control jurisdictions, and the perfect place to begin to disappear, and that is the first step. the plane then flew out of into the indian ocean. so why do they say that the ones in the cockpit and not a hijack er er in the passenger cabin, but the theory is that if it were a passenger who emerged into the passenger group to get into the cockpit, in the post 9/11 world, those passengers would have revolt issed and tried to stop them, and tried to have gotten into the cockpit, and what was the reason that the passengers stayed in their seats, and stayed calm by all accounts for the five or more hours that the plane kopted to fly? they had the theory is that why did they stay in their seats?

>> jim clancey live in kuala lumpur, thank you. as jim said, it seems almost impossible for a large jet to vanish regardless of the circumstances but now that it has happened, there is talk in the u.s. about improving trafficking mechanisms for commercial aircraft. cnn's athee that jones looked into that. >> reporter: the future of tracking flights could already be here. this is boeing corporation's 787 command center near seattle where technicians track air born 787s in realtime, mapping their location and monitoring maintenance and technical issues throughout the center as they happen. if a plane has a tire pressure problem flying over the atlantic, they'll know. >> in fact, it's a little more extensive than that because there are several of us that get the messages to our blackberries and so wherever we are, whether we're in the room or off on a picnic somewhere, we'll find out about it immediately. >> reporter: but command center this is sophisticated don't exist for 777s and other smaller and older aircraft. and tracking every

i want to bring in kyung lah in kuala lumpur. and the families who we've seen in the last 12 hours, a desperate rise for information. the bubbling over of anger and frustration of these now going on 13 days for the families. any sort of word, i would assume, would be welcome, although certainly if this is indicative of some sort of skracrash that is certainly the worst kim, what are you hearing in kuala lumpur? >> reporter: we haven't heard anything directly from the families themselves. the malaysian nationals here in kuala lumpur are all in one hotel. and they really have stayed quite yeah from the media. but one thing i did see when i was there, anderson, is that there is a large banner, an extremely large banner. across it, it says pray for your safe return. the families want and were hoping that this would indeed be a hijack. it was in the newspapers every single day. the families hoped that somehow miraculously the family members were all alive. it is a roller coaster for them, one moment they're hopeful. at the same time,

>> saima mohsin for us in kuala lumpur. of course, this look into the pilots is key, if only to rule them out as a possibility for what went wrong with this plane. many of those who had family members on board, they're still holding out hope that there's some explanation that would allow for their family members to still be alive. still, they're not happy at the slow pace of the search and the lack of information they're getting from malaysian officials. our pauline chiou is live in beijing. she's been following that part of the story. good morning, pauline. >> reporter: good morning, john. and these families are frustrated because there is no one here to answer their questions. there's no one from the malaysian government, no one from the embassy, no one from the chinese government, and just legal representatives from malaysian airlines that come here every day to give them some briefings or to try to answer their questions. so, that's part of the frustration for the families. and at this briefing early this morning, one w

saima mohsin is in kuala lumpur with more for us. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, christine. yes, we've been taking a look at the pilots, of course, in great detail. we're trying to get as much detail about them as we can for you, about their families, what they did in their spare time, and of course, their jobs. and the pilot, of course, under particular scrutiny because of that air simulator that was found in his house. i spoke to a friend of his, peter chong, who told me about it, said he used to practice various scenarios on it. but of course, also, his political affiliation's under scrutiny as well, as investigators go through and try to piece this jigsaw puzzle together. now, peter chong, his friend told me that he was a silent member of the people's justice party, the opposition party here in ma maisha. i've just spoken to a politician from that party. he told me that, yes, he knows captain zaharie used to attend their meetings and social events. he wasn't terribly vocal. i said to him, was he an extremist? he said ab

the airport at kuala lumpur connects southeast asia to the continent. paul weeks needs to make it thousands of miles inland, all the way to mongolia. >> he was doing this for the right reason. it was his dream job. >> weeks is an engineer, husband to danica, and the father of two young boys. >> he spent so much time with his kids. he'd take them to the zoo, like, he was his little shadow. >> in fact, preparing the boys was a major issue before paul left for his 28-day assignment abroad. >> we cried when we left. i mean, this is a big change for the family. and we'd prepared lincoln. paul had gone and bought him a little pad to skype him and a map with, you know, where daddy was going to be. >> when weeks left home, he told his wife he was leaving a few things behind. >> 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 come back and i'll give it back to you and you can give it to them

how are his comments going down with the relative there is in kuala lumpur? >> reporter: relatives want to hear that message, no doubt about that, rosemary. they pleaded with the acting transport minister here yesterday in kuala lumpur. they held a buddhist prayer service today for an hour or more. then the families came out with more demands. they want this plane found. they want their relatives returned safely if that's at all possible. while that seems to be asking for almost a miracle, the officials here in kuala lumpur are trying not to completely dash that dream. but frankly many of them believe it is a dream. it's not going to be reality. so many days after this plane disappeared off the radar here. there are charges too coming from the chinese family of wrong doing by the malaysians saying there were criminal acts. the criminal act of not beginning the search in the indian ocean a week earlier. but all of the countries in the region really share some of the responsibility for what was a slow response time. when it was asked they give up their radar re

a malasian airlines flight vanished when it left kuala lumpur. richelle carey is here now. racial. >> a malasian plane, pretty large plane a boeing 777. scheduled to land in beijing more than five hours ago. air traffic control lost contact with this plane about two hours after takeoff from kuala lumpur. four u.s. citizens are on board, we know that now, three adults and one infant. three adults and one infant. the airline says the plane was over the south china sea when it lost contact, when last contact was made. the airline says authorities have activated search and ep rescue teams to try to locate the aircraft. the company is trying to make contact with family members and crew as well. the last major accident involving a malasian airlines plane was back in september of 1995. that is what we know right now. news of the missing malasian aircraft rippled through social media at the beijing international airport the information boards list was in red. this woman believed to be the relative of a passenger reacting the news. malasian airlines are connecting the passengers and

>> jim clancy appreciate the update from kuala lumpur. later on in the program, philip wood's two brothers are going to join us tonight, talking about their brother and the faith they share that is getting them through these incredibly difficult days. we want to run through as many possibilities. how the investigation is proceeding, joining us, two women who have been on the front lines when airliners have been brought down. george w bush's homeland security adviser, mary schiavo, former inspector general for the u.s. department of transportation. she currently represents victims and families of transportation accidents. fran, jim sciutto reporting that they seem to be moving away from the thoughts of terrorism. what do you make of all this? >> it's natural investigators were going to take the leads that they have. stolen passports from thailand, austrian and italian travellers, paid for in cash. same travel agent, they were going to look at that and kuala lumpur has a terrorism expert. it was natural the law enforcement and intelligence

so you could have a kuala lumpur, go out to a waypoint and return back to kuala lumpur. say you had a fire on an engine after liftoff. you know you're not going to fly around a lot, so pull this secondary or alternate flight plan into the active flight plan, hit execute and the auto pilot takes the beijing flight plan, drives it to a secondary flight plan and it will drive this new one. what we know is somebody executed that secondary flight plan and the airplane then turned left. what we don't know is how they built that route. to either come back to kuala lumpur or go off into a waypoint out in the indian ocean? >> is it the sort of thing where it will vary from pilot to pilot or maybe from airline to airline in terms of how pilots make decisions about that plan 2 or plan "b?" >> absolutely. absolutely. unless the airline standardizes it and says you will build two flight plans, you'll have your primary and alternate for emergency situations. a lot of conscientious pilots will always have a secondary flight plan. >> is that the sort of information where we -- there mig

andrew stevens there in kuala lumpur. we'll try to digest the questions and get some sort of answers. from my panel coming up, pakistan, meantime, again saying the missing malaysian airplane did not show up on pakistan's radar. so we'll find out what that means coupled with the things that andrew just brought up. jack barker is a former faa spokes man and aviation consultant joining me in atlanta. phil savage is a former pilot and accident investigator. and mary shiavo is a cnn analyst. listening to all that information, what is included and what has been excluded or dismissed at this point, mr. barker, let many ask you first, what does it tell you that these pilots didn't request to work together, that there was no extra fuel as we heard andrew reporting there, no extra fuel on this plane, and pakistan is now saying it doesn't appear as though that plane showed up on our radar, which would have been part of that northward arc if indeed the satellite imagery is right, that the plane may have gone north or south, but at le

we will head back wall of the were as helpful and out to kuala -- we will head back to kuala lumpur as helpful in the amen has the latest. -- as half linda has the latest. >> welcome back. you are watching live pictures , a newsrom malaysia ofefing to give more details the stolen passports used by at least two people to board the plane that is now missing. it is now being searched for by ships and aircraft from various countries. the stolen passports suspects were given social visit visas according to the immigration department official lawyer, who has been speaking to officials in kuala lumpur. suspects with stolen passports were queried on their visit. they identified one suspect of a stolen passport as a rainy and -- as iranian. he said he was 19 years old. he's not believe to be a member of any terror group. he was using an austrian passport. that was the inspector general of the police speaking to reporters most recently. >> we will continue to dip in and out of that news conference. let's come away for a second, because speaking at the south and southwest conference in link fromv

he joins us live from kuala lumpur. jim, i understand there say new investigation by malaysian authorities, is that correct? >> reporter: right. this has got basically three investigations going on right now. the one that andrew is talking about, the search for the plane, using data, using oceanographers, and everyone else, the visual searches. that is an all-important one. then we've got the search for motives. we've got the search for individuals who might have links here, you know, writing all of these people off. just yesterday, the ahead of the malaysia police here told us, they're not going to release anything on that investigation until some later date when they can could actually draw some conclusions. they say it would prejudice the investigation. but now we have a new military investigation that was announced. the malaysian royal air force is going to investigate. they're really investigating how it was that it took so long to arrive at some of these conclusions. they have, for instance, the radar data that sh

kuala lumpur connects southeast asia to the continent. paul weeks needs to make it thousands of miles inland to mongolia. >> and he was doing it for right reason. it was his dream job. >> reporter:er and he is an engineer and husband to danika and father to two boys. >> he spent so much time with the kids, and took them to the zoo. and they were like his little shadow. >> reporter: in fact, preparing the boys was a major issue preparing for paul's 28-day abroad assignment. >> itt wthis was a big change fe family and especially lincoln, and he had bought him a little mini pad to skype him and a map to know where daddy would be. >> reporter: when he left home, he told his wife that he was leaving a few things behind. >> he said, i am leaving behind my wedding ring and watch, and if anything should happen to me, i want the wedding ring to go to the first son marry and the second to have the watch. i said something like, don't be stupid, you come back and i will give it back to you, and you can give it to them then. >> reporter: hours earlier

we don't know what the reason was for this time flight plan, whether to go back to kuala lumpur or to take it back from beijing. >> reporter: a retired captain helped re-create in a 737 what we know, someone turned off the transponder with the flip of a switch. >> you can see i can push the button and that would bring it up. >> reporter: they switched off, then disabled the acars data system, possibly by pulling the circuit breaker. >> the circuit breaker would be on one of these pack panels, behind the pilots. >> reporter: easy steps for a pilot. total time, 20 seconds. then making a you-turn back to kuala lumpur. >> all i have to do is spin this knob around and the aircraft will turn around. >> reporter: sources tell nbc news whoever turned the plane programmed the flight management system and knew what they were doing. >> this would be a very elaborate scheme. they would have had very, very extensive training to pull this off. >> reporter: meanwhile, the most intense search remains focused on the rough waters over the southern indian ocean. 1,500 miles southwest of perth, where a m

there have been emotional scenes at the airport in kuala lumpur in malaysia as frustration boiled over among families of people on board the missing malaysia airlines plane. at least two people thought to be relatives of passengers were bundled away when they complained about the lack of information. 12 days after the plane disappeared, there's still no sign of the missing aircraft. 26 countries are involved in the search operation covering two giant arcs to the north and south of the plane's last known location. the bbc's jonah fisher is at the media center where that confrontation happened. a warning, his report contains flash photography. >> reporter: there's a line of police here. they are effectively protecting the chinese relatives who came here to try to speak to journalists. keeping the media away. let's see if we can get through. excuse me, guys. i'd like to speak to the relatives. why not? why are we not being allowed through? can you tell me? you're live on bbc world. anyone here want to tell us why we can't speak to the relatives? anyone? what did you say, sir? no. you can

the flight went missing a few hours into its trip from kuala lumpur to beijing. after three days the only lead is an oil slick found 90 miles south of vietnam. search crews from eight different countries with dozens of planes and ships are scouring the gulf of thailand and the south china sea looking for the boeing 777. adding to the mysterious disappearing flight, two people were traveling with stolen passports. we'll have reports from beijing and kuala lumpur in a few moments. >>> and vladimir putin says crimea has the right to

let's say it's kuala lumpur. okay. it would head to kuala lumpur. once it got over kuala lumpur, whatever that heading was, whether it's south -- >> no. if it's taking off from kuala lumpur and it's headed to beijing, what goes into the autopilot. >> an entire route all the way to beijing. >> okay. >> but once you enter a new waypoint, chances are the captain just entered a -- if the scenario, once again, is correct, the captain -- >> what i'm saying is if he has entered beijing, right, and this happens, he clicks off the autopilot. >> correct. >> and then starts to steer himself to get it to where he wants it to go. does that happen or no? does it go through the autopilot? >> procedurally, we would do it through the autopilot. >> that's my question. >> okay. >> breaking news here on cnn. this is what we're learning. the newest information is that military radar tracked flight 370 between 1:19 and 2:40 a.m., 2:40 in the morning, as it took off from kuala lumpur and showed that the aircraft did change altitude after making a sharp turn over the south

viajamos desde miami hasta kuala lumpur. y el vuelo 003 desde londrez a kuala lumpur estÁ por partir. >>> este es el bus que nos lleva. prÁcticamente esta vacÍo. quiere decir que pocos pasajeros van a kuala lumpur. >>> en la sala de espera la situaciÓn no era distinta. en la sala de espera no hay gran cantidad de pasajeros, gente nos dijo que cada uno tendrÁ dos asientos. no hay duda que la desapariciÓn afecto econÓmicamente a la compaÑÍa. >>> sÍ, tengo un poco de temor. >>> a pesar que tiene buen historial esta tragedia empeorÓ la economÍa, para boeing es un traspie porque tendrÁ que rediseÑar la estrategia futura de sus triple 7. el enorme airbus tiene una capacidad para 525. pero este era el panorama. la seguridad es mÁs estricta, la prensa acusa a la compaÑÍa de alejar a los familiares de la prensa para evitar que la imagen de esta compaÑÍa se siga deteriorando mÁs de lo que esta. es la informaciÓn desde malasia. adelante. >>> gracias galo. y continuamos. personas no identificados asesinaron a gustav

john. >> our thanks to jim clancy in kuala lumpur today. thanks so much. >>> if you're wondering how countries are reacting, israel are stepping up their defenses into fears that someone may have flown this jet north into asia with plans to use it in some sort of attack. cnn analyst fran townsend, advice tore president bush, tells cnn that is unlikely. >> if you look at the northern route, would have had to go close to the pakistan/indian border, probably one of the best defense it's in world. and over the united arab emirates which also has incredible air defenses. i'm not sure where that takes you. i couldn't imagine it navigated that far and skirted all those air defenses and the theory is you landed where. to load up with some sort of weapon. but in fairness to israel, it's a tiny country, it's not as though -- you know what i mean, they take this air defense system very seriously because they don't have a lot of time to react. until you know where the plane is, do you know it's in the indian ocean, until you've accounted for it, it's u

it took off yesterday from kuala lumpur going to beijing but didn't make it. no wreckage has turned up, but one clue is giving researchers a bad feeling about this flight. several miles of oil slicks have been spotted on the gulf of thailand on the general flight path that jet was on before it disappeared. and something unusual has officials concerned. two people whose names were on the passenger manifest were not on the plane at all. they say their passports were stolen months or years ago. that means two people were on the plane with passports not issued to them. while we wait for word from the airline, we want to talk about this stolen passport concern. for that we have tom fuentes, a former assistant director at the fbi. also mary skyler, with specific experience on these kinds of incidents. tom, i want to talk to both of you to get a sense of how important this detail is. i want to read a quote i got this morning. the intel official said, we're aware of the reporting on the two lost, stolen passports. no nexus to terrorism yet, but that's by no means defi

appreciate it from kuala lumpur. now, throughout the hour we'll be putting some of the best minds in the business to work on this new information we have. now we're going to explore possible scenarios in the flight simulator and inside a virtual replica of the 777's electronics bay. first tonight michael schmidt of the "new york times," also former u.s. department of transportation inspector general mary schiavo who represents accident victims and their families and cnn aviation analyst. les abend. this information that nbc news has broken tonight that the change in direction was programmed into the computer at least 12 minutes before that final communication. how do you interpret it? again as in everything, there are multiple interpretations of this. >> i hate to use a common word we all seem to be using, but baffling. to me, 12 minutes prior indicates that maybe there wasn't a problem. but at the same token, it could have been programmed for maybe a -- being a waypoint and maybe it was a mistaken waypoint initially

scott heidler joins us from kuala lumpur. families in china expressed frustration over a lack of information. has the situation been different on the malaysian side of things? >> they have set up a facility like they had in china. smaller though. if you look at the numbers, over 150 people on the aircraft were chinese. here in malaysia, there are 38 or so. not as big a gathering as you will here on the malaysian side of the story. what has been the focus is the investigation and search and rescue operation for the aircraft. we heard from a couple of people, including the transportation minister. she said something interesting, a possibility that the plane turned around. that's kind of expanded the search and rescue operation, if, in fact, there's radar indications that this plane turned around, that really opens up a lot more territory that needs to be looked at when they are looking at debris or an indication that the aircraft went down and where it went down. before it was focussed on being lost on radar, now they have to e

the plane took off from kuala lumpur. its last known point where it was in contact with ground control, just as it was entering vietnamese air space. the information was being sent out via transponders. this is equipment which actually identifies the specific aircraft so you know exactly what it is you're looking at. at that point, those transponders stopped working. we don't know why. but primary radar, which is a less sophisticated radar being used by civilian and military, continued to track this blip which the plane had now become. it turned, it did almost a u-turn and headed back towards malaysia. remember, this was an hour into the flight. so it's clear the malaysian mainland, it is now heading back towards the malaysian mainland. it continued to fly for another hour, perhaps a bit longer across the malaysian mainland to the other side of the west coast into the straits of malacca. the last known sighting when that blip was still on the radar screens occurred over a very small island, roughly halfway between malaysi

he is in kuala lumpur. jim, what do you know? >> reporter: well, there is no doubt whatsoever that about an hour after the plane left kuala lumpur on saturday morning that the pilot or someone turned that plane around more than 90 degrees. malaysian authorities originally called it a turnback, thought they were maybe returning to kuala lumpur. that course, though, set it going directly into the indian ocean. malaysian government says it is aware of u.s. reports overnight about the satellite pings, about the fact that it was sending back data. it says it is working with the federal aviation administration, the national transportation safety board and others providing them that raw radar records, those things that are being used to figure out where this plane is located. u.s. warships now moving east to west along what is believed to be the suspected flight path of the missing flight 370. the indian ocean depth is an average of about 13,000 feet, which may present problems. but remember, air france's black box was recovered from 16

. >> reporter: flight 370 was go from kuala lumpur to beijing. investigators are looking over the south china sea and the west coast of malaysia but the more time passes, the more loved ones grow desperate for answers. >>> reporter: the longer a missing passenger jet stays missing, the more difficult the search becomes. >> with every day that passes by crucial time is passing, that haystack is getting bigger. >> reporter: more than three days after malaysia airlines flight 370 took off from kuala lumpur, crews from ten countries on 40 ships and more than 3 dozen aircraft had found nothing. chinese officials arrived in kuala lumpur on monday to press the malaysian government to intensify the search and speed up the investigation. the majority of the passengers on the beijing-bound flight were from china or taiwan. the news that american philip wood is among those missing is a shock to his brothers. >> we're taking it sometimes an hour at a time, sometimes just a minute at a time. but we are holding together. >> reporter: the use of stolen passport

many arrived in kuala lumpur. most were coming from beijing. philip wood.is one of three americans who's now missing. >> catherine:wood raised his family in north texas before mosing to east asia. the 50-year old was an i-b-m executive who recently visited friends and family in the u-s. his brother.is coping as best he can. "." their fastest internet slows down [ deep voice ]. two hd movies in an xfinity home, the internet stays fast because, it's 2014. hello! [ man on screen ] ugh. so last season. [ male announcer ] exactly. fast never goes out of fashion. sign up today or get started with this great offer. call 1-800-xfinity. people definitely felt it in and around eureka and humboldt. and up into oregon. some reports of shaking in parts of the bay area. more than 20 aftershocks of 3.5 or larger followed the initial quake. new tonight at 8-- kron4's scott rates >> jacqueline: and the upper 60s and low 70's bay area wide. as temperatures repair and a handout we saw yesterday down nine degrees is until and six degrees cooler in redwood city ope

our jim clancy in kuala lumpur. thanks so much. >> and like jim said, for the flight 370 families, the agon e agonizing wait for any word on their loved ones going on. o the husband of one of the flight attendants says it's been difficult to tell his children about their missing mom. >> i promised them i'm going to bring her home, but i really don't know where she is now. and now i'm not sure whether i can bring her home. of course, i'm still hoping for god's miracles, but just like what we want is the reality, the true story. >> the majority of those on board the flight are from china. relatives demanding more information about the flight from the airline and from the malaysian government. cnn's pauline chiou live in beijing. just breaks your heart to hear the husband of that flight attendant, pauline, you know, waiting to figure out how to tell his story. multiply that anguish by 239. these families, either one of their loved ones working on this flight or taking a flight home. it's just -- and the waiting for the