Half Handshake News Today

Discussing now, hammering out a longer-term search agreement. one of the things that the malaysians had proposed is broadening out the search area. right now theyre only searching a 6-mile radius around that second ping, that second acoustic detection picked up by the towed pinger locator. well, there are three other detections that were made. some analysts suggesting maybe they should do the same for those areas as well, also suggesting, perhaps, a broader search area along that arc, the so-cal...

The second ping that was picked up by that towed pinger locator. theyre searching in a 6-mile radius around that point. now, once thats exhausted, which, again, australian officials say could happen in the next few days, they may potentially, some analysts say, turn to some of the other points where they picked up those signals. there were three other detections made. they might just broaden out the area in general, possibly along that arc, the half handshake, the so-called half handshake betwee...

So, if they do expand the search, how exactly would they do that? >> reporter: well, right now, theyre searching in the area of the second ping detection, which was the strongest signal they detected. theyre searching in a 6-mile radius around that point. now, once theyve exhausted that, theres been talk of potentially, some analysts saying maybe searching in the locations where the other pings were detected. theres also been talk of maybe just broadening out the search area to search along that...

Captain tim taylor, a submersible specialist and a science correspondent for pbs news hour. miles, we were so optimistic so many times in the last 32 days. satellite images, plane sightings of orange objects. is this more promising than those earlier ones? do you think this is a legitimately promising sign? >> in a word, yes. what i like about this whole thing is it matches that arc. it validates the inmarsat data. it correlates with the half handshake or pink which we presume to be the last com...

That they can now go on to the next challenge and deal with that, too. >> miles, whats the bottom line for you, especially given youve been frustrated with inmarsainm lack of transparency, do you believe this is the plane? >> im an inmarsat believer. the fact that this location happens to coincide with that last, we call it the half handshake, half ping, whatever you like, which we have associated with the last transmission from the aircraft, that, to me, thats triangulating your data and your e...

Their best probability of the area where the flight has crashed. what do you make of the move today? >> what weve got to fundamentally understand is they are working with the best information they have. it comes from the six pings, the handshakes, the half handshake. if you look at the way it has moved down. it comes right the way down into the southern indian ocean. that is the best guess that they have. >> how best is it? >> it doesnt matter how best it is. its all theyve got. and they say the...

Lets look here. >> they are using their very small two pieces of information, refining, recalibrating, rethinking. but that is it. because if there is some other piece of data, they aint told us. and i think we might have heard about that by now. >> miles obrien, what do you make of the shift? >> i think, anderson, what youve got here, we know from the inmarsat returns, these hand shakes, we can speculate pretty well as to when the flight ended. it was either the last full handshake or the so-ca...

Four on the engines and then one in the auxilliary power unit. and as they were turning off and turning on, as it were, to keep electrical power going, that half handshake might have occurred. >> okay. and i want to tell our viewers, youve looking at the small little box and that is because were waiting for a press conference from the australian prime minister, tony abbott. at any moment, he is expected to come out. necessary perth, australia. no one is sure why he is there. if this is a morale ...

Completely, the other is still winding down. this is that plane. this is that slow degrade. >> richard, this is very important. to help searchers try to figure out where to look >> yes. because youre looking at where that last ping, that last half ping, the half handshake was. so clearly it would have been on the same heading according to this experiment. one thing i do need to put down to any viewer now marginally concerned about anything we are showing here, these planes are designed to fly fo...

Position from that last ping at 8:11 local time and calculated that the aircraft will have impacted the water within a 1 50-mile radius of that point. that gives a search area of 70 square miles, but it is not the same area as all that debris is. >> so many questions. >> wow. >> and you know, theres even questions about the partial ping, possibly a partial ping that inmarsat says it recorded. can you tell us anything? have you talked to any of the experts about that? >> well, again, professor st...