transponder off and if they were doing that, they were doing it to disguise the path of the plane. there may be mechanical explanations on what was going on but those mechanical explanations are narrowing quickly. >> let's dig deeper with our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto and cnn law enforcement analyst and assistant director tom fuentes. do you agree with him that mechanical issue may be more difficult to come to that conclusion, given what we now know from the malaysian air force? >> i think so, wolf. because what you're asking for is enough of a mechanical failure to shut off the equipment, the transponders and the radio but not enough to have it crash down on the spot. the other thing is, the plane