this new data flight 370 ended in the southern indian ocean. the prime minister broke the news to the families prior to his public statement. the families also received a text message from malaysian airlines that read in part, the ongoing multinational search operation will continue as we seek answers to the questions which remain. alongside the search for 370, there s an intensive investigation which we hope will also provide answers. searchers aboard australian and chinese planes have spotted new debris in the search area. meanwhile, and the chinese release satellite imagery this weekend of possible debris. however, there s no confirmation that the debris is from flight 370. in anticipation of finding wreckage, the navy has put the black box locater on a flight taking off from new york s jfk airport. keir simmons in kuala lumpur. what was the scene like for the family when they got that news today? reporter: incredibly difficult. good afternoon. i think the feeling am
minute. i think for the families, given all that we just heard. given all that anthony just said, then i think if i m the family, i m wondering, why can t they show me the wreckage? why do they keep on having these false starts where they say there s a satellite image here and there. with all of that data, then why can t they find it? yeah, well, you know, that ping that the satellite gets is only one time an hour. and it s not a precise location of where the plane is. calculation of how long it took it to get up to the satellite. but the satellite doesn t know exactly where that is. so it s an imprecise locater. it tells you it s in the middle of nowhere that s why they concluded the plane did go down. but it doesn t tell you just where along that pattern the plane hit. we hope, it mean, there s enough sightings by satellite of something out there to hope they re in the right area for actually seeing wreckage which
he said i want to hear that. for these relatives, joy, this is one thing for the prime minister to say this. but their questions will still be where is the plane? is the debris spotted connected to flight 370 or not? because there are few things as painful as losing someone close to you. one of those might be losing someone close to you and not knowing what happened or where they are. joy? indeed. thanks so much. and robert hager is an nbc news contributor and retired aviation correspondent. and anthony ramon is a former pilot. it s a lot differently, in theory, thinking about what happened to this plane and getting the news. the finality of it for the families. it s sad news for the family and all of us who have been following and analyzing this terrible tragedy. you know, the satellites are extremely reliable information