above water, if any? that, can t tell you. i m here in seoul. the republic of korea government, the ministry of national defense, could probably provide you a better answer on that with regards to the vessel and how much has been sunk. so best hope against hope right now is that they are using divers to get under there because people could be in air pockets, right? that would be the best hope. yeah, that s our understanding. and we are like i said, we re standing by and we ve been in touch with the on-scene commander on the scene. and we re prepared to assist as necessary. and it s also important, it had to be a very fast response because the sea there, the yellow sea, very cold and people are describing the conditions as they jumped in unusual to be told to immediately abandon ship that way. to get there quickly enough to rescue them is no small effort. thank you for the update, lieutenant. let us know if you guys are brought officially into the
bring a two liter sample by shore. it traveled by chopper and jet. a military ship was expected this morning. they are going to compare it to samples provided by malaysian airlines. there s been speculation that this could be from the engine of the plane. but, simply just speculation at this point. authorities saying they do not know what it is. there have been false leads in the search so far. they are treating it with caution. again, we are waiting for the results. christine? a deep part of the ocean. it will take a long time to find what they are looking for, no question. thank you. officials think the bluefin 21 is the best hope of spotting anything on the floor that could be from this flight. it uses sonar to bounce sound waves off the ocean floor. this area of the ocean is unchartered. it s unclear what the unmanned vehicle might find. oceanographers believe the sea floor is covered in rolling
the ocean floor? breaking overnight. ukraine strikes back. the government moving town by town, taking on pro-russian demonstrators as vladimir putin warns a civil war is coming. what will the u.s. do next? your new day starts right your new day starts right now. captions by vitac www.vitac.com good morning. welcome to new day. right now a massive rescue operation is under way after a ferry carrying 459 people sank off south korea s coast. actually in the process of sinking as you can see. take a look at this incredible image. the ship is almost entirely submerged and sinking very quickly. it is huge. officials say at least three people are dead and nearly 300 unaccounted for at this hour. most of the passengers were high school students. a lot of that vessel, as chris
the currents. indra was talking about the challenges of the water temperatures as well. they have not been able to get inside the vessel yet because of the strong currents. what are these rescuers up against? there s that. there s how to get into the vessel and then how to work with the dournts get into the vis sell and the vessel sinking at the same time. they re up against every sort of obstacle. you know, not knowing exactly their way around the ship, too, they have to worry about that. once they have access to the ship, then what? it s dark on the inside, it s just an absolutely, positively horrific situation. it s nightmarish for anyone who has been on a boat and spent time on a boat. nep especially in a case like this where people are stuck inside. the ship is sinking. inside people are now standing on the ceiling rather than on the floor. david, when something like this happens with such a big vessel, you would think that this would happen slowly, gradually, allowing for tim
it is really very upsetting for these families. darkness has now fallen and with darkness fallen so do the hopes that many more survivors if any could be found. 291 still missing, still possibly in the water, still possibly in that ship itself. we understand divers have been drying to get inside the ship but the strong currents have been preventing them from it getting inside. the search and rescue operation are still very much under way. one of the uss navy ships from the u.s. seventh fleet is also helping out. helicopters are trying to look to see if there are any other survivors. but at this point there are great concerns about those almost 300 still missing. chris? paula, what are the families being told about how this happened, where the ferry was? what details have they been given? well, with know that the ferry at this point is 20 kilometers off the mainland. 20 kill meres from where we are now. it was on its way to a tourist hot spot, jeju island, the size