Page 2 - Peter Goels News Today

Goes down and its down there right now, but in the next few hours we learn that for a second time it has self aborted and started coming back to the surface because it wasnt capable of reaching that depth. where do they go from here if that were to happen? >> reporter: indeed. angus houston has suggested, in fact, if the depth is consistently greater than 4,500 meters, if its beyond the operating range, they are already looking at bringing other assets in that can go far, far deeper. and thats, ...

Like its from a ship, so it could be mobile jet 2, which is used on this airplane, or maybe possibly hydraulic fluid. our understanding is, its on its way back to perth now for analysis and were hoping within 24, maybe 48 hours, well get some definition on this. and this could be the first piece of confirmed debris, if you like, from mh370. >> you would think, peter, youre a former ntsb investigator, they would have sent some chemists out on that ship to determine and do a little analysis. its n...

>> but as bob said, we found out the ntsb -- it was the only agency that could do it effectively. >> well, and bob, to what peter was saying, youve got to have, i think as a family member, you want one source of information you feel like you can trust. one of the frustrations apparently that they had was they were told they wouldnt receive anymore briefings now that this was a criminal investigation. im assuming thats because its under malaysian protocol, thats how theyre doing it. obviously, we...

Members needed more than anything else was a source of information that could above all be trusted. when there were facts to be had, they needed to trust them. and thats why in the united states the ntsb does the briefing. they handle the families. for whatever reasons, and its good work that the agency does, theyre trusted by the public. theyre trusted by congress. and the ntsb is trusted by the families. >> bob, to that -- >> let me just add to what peter said. >> sure. >> i just thought viewe...

Drew. were getting more information, and once again, we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and now around the world, as well. were following the breaking news, a malaysian air force official now telling cnn this plane was way, way off-course. looked like it made a dramatic u-turn. malaysian air force radar tracking this plane for an hour after the transponder apparently was shut down. peter goelz is still with us, former ntsb managing director. peter, give us your analysis of what ...

Flying pilot was out of the cabin on a rest room break. they actually got into a struggle in the cockpit to get control of the plane. and unfortunately, the co pilt pilot turned the engines off and the plane crashed into the north atlantic. so you do have two cases where pilots have deliberately flown their planes into the ocean. >> and is it that -- is it that easy, peter, to simply push a button and the transponder goes off and then no one can monitor where that plane is heading? >> it is not ...

Different raiders monitoring at any given time. if this is true, it really is zeroing in on what was going on in the cockpit, and why. and its -- once they started to expand their search in the opposite direction of where the flight was headed, that was the tip-off. they knew something was going on. >> and whats so intriguing, peter, and i want yourle analysis of this. it looks like at least for an hour that aircraft, that boeing 777 was flying without its transponder on. so somebody had deliber...

Given. still no sight of any debris. no sight of this airliner. peter goels is joining us right now, former ntsb managing director. so the -- this air force official from malaysia, peter, is now saying the plane was hundreds of miles off course from where it would have been going if on a normal route from kuala lumpur to beijing. what do you make of that? >> even more perplexing. i think it starts to narrow the options down. if this report is true, it means a couple things. one is, was there som...

Flight data recorder and the voice recorder with good pingers. this is going to be a real challenge. because the oil slick may or may not be from the aircraft. the currents will have moved it. theyre going to have a very difficult time finding this wreckage. >> yep. give me the protocol, please, at this point, peter. whats happening a couple hours into the flight? is this all on autopilot? they have reached a cruising altitude and everything should be smooth sailing? >> absolutely. and the pilot...

Plane down. but they had an immediate piece of data, recall, on that air france plane. and that was the plane was sending real-time telemetry data back to its base in france, advising the base, the computers, back in france, what was happening with this plane. we dont know, candidly, whether this 777 was sending a similar set of data, telemetry, back to its home base in malaysia. thats something well be asking as this process unfolds. >> okay, tom costello in d.c., thank you for. peter goels, yo...