but rather from the air france crash. deborah feyerick is out front. >> dozens of satellites from numerous countries are all trained on the indian ocean. but it's satellite ins of the 2009 crash of the air france flight that might be key to finding the missing wreckage. so rather than invent the wheel you're taking something that looks a lot like a wheel and shaping it for the current circumstances. >> with the air france crash, well documented well photographed well cataloged. we now piece this all together. we begin to have a better story and better understanding of what we could be looking at present day. >> stephen wood spent 25 years with the cia identifying satellite images and what they might mean. he believes analyzing data from the air france crash could speed up the search. >> what is it that you as an imager can make out? that to me i see a very zing shape, a color tone. i see something that stands out clearly from the background. one of the beauties of these satellites is you can precisely measure an object.