Answers. You have been tweeting your questions by the thousands and we have experts standing by to answer them for you like this from sara. How long would it take for the plane to sink and how far would the drift be . I want to get right to the search zone. Lets start with you joe johns. We talked about that search zone. That it was narrowed. It has been a month for the investigation and the government revealed new information about the planes disappearance from radar. What did we learn, joe . I think we learned three things. First, we are learning Malaysian Air force search aircraft were dispatched soon after the airline reported its plane was missing. Malaysian government officials, however, are denying any type of jets were scrambled. So theres room for clarification on that. The second thing we are learning is the aircraft apparently dipped twoon 5,000 and 4,000 feet during its travels, not clear whether it was the result of some trouble or if it was done by the pilots for example to try to evade detection. The third thing we learned was that the voice on the sign off on those last haunting words good night mh370, was the voice of the captain. So three important new elements to add to the piece of the puzzle. The question, of course, is how all of these things put together. So we know for a fact who was flying the plane, the pilot or copilot . I dont think that is clear. I dont think it is clear at all. What we do know is in the last final exchanges, verified by voice comparison with other pilots at Malaysia Airlines, the voices were calm, apparently no stress. And apparently no voices in the background. Still, we dont know who was in control of the plane at the time. Joe johns, thank you very much. Erin mclaughlin theres been another possible ping heard. How is the search changing based on the latest signals . I have lost my feed. Apparently having trouble with her. That happens when it is live. How has it changed since it is 18,000 square miles and the fifth ping. Every time they get another ping, it increases the certainty that what they found is the right thing and that allows them to decrease the area that they are searching in. We havent had this fifth ping confirmed, but if it is confirmed its like we saw last night with tom foreman, you keep getting pings. You draw the circle and the more pings you get the closer it becomes. So your search area is greatly reduced. Thats why Angus Houston wants to try to get as many pings as possible. As many pings as possible because number one the battery life, the battery is weakening every single minute. Thats important to find it as soon as possible. The battery life is weakening. He doesnt have a second chance. Once the pinger has died, thats it. So why not spend the time getting as many assets in the water. You have the buoys, the ships, the tow ping locate canner. All of these things searching now while they can. Joe johns said they had no idea whether it was the pilot or copilot. That was interesting because they said the last thing was good night 370. And they said that you the pilots voice, but they dont know who was flying the plane. The chief executive of Malaysia Airlines said it was his understanding it was the copilot, the first officer. Now they seem to be amending that. They played it to five different people. Officially they are saying nothing. Unofficially sources have told cnn that they believe it is the captain. We dont know. We have to stick with what we are being told officially which seems to suggest the first officer. Lets check in with Erin Mclaughlin again. Can you hear us this time. Yes, i can. Theres been another possible ping heard. How is the search changing from where you are based on the latest signal . They have been analyzing the new data overnight. They said it looked promising. We are waiting for updates on that. We will let you know as soon as we hear. Really if this does in fact turn out to be the real deal it is significant for two reasons. It lets them know that the Batteries Associated with the black box pinger have not yet expired and Angus Houston, the man responsible for coordinating the search effort said the search for pings will continue as long as they believe that battery is still in play and it gives them more information, more information with which which to narrow down a potential search field. The more pings they get, he more information they have to be able to send down, to narrow down that search field in order to send down an underwater autonomous vehicle. It will be able to go underwater and search for the wreckage and take pictures, as well. As far as we know at the moment, were not at that stage yet, don. Thank you very much. We appreciate that. The australian Prime Minister has previously scheduled remarks in shanghai and we will let you know if he says anything about the search effort. Stay tuned. Richard, i want you to stay with me and check many with Martin Savidge whos in a 777 Flight Simulator along with mitchell casado. Sources say the plane dipped to an altitude of 4,000 to 5,000 feet after it crossed the malaysian peninsula. Martin, help us understand that. Well,ly tell you right now, we are cruising in the simulator at 4500 feet. And we are heading northwest up the strait. In the simulator. This is what malaysian sources suggest the plane did. We have it in daylight so you can see the horizon and aircraft. Any pilot, anyone with any understanding of radar would tell you, you fail and fail miserably. Show us if we want the plane to go off of radar and it will have to be dramatically closer to the ground. Mitchell will put us in to a steep dive and see the water racing up to us through the windshield. Hear the alarms alerting us we are going too fast and too low but bring it in to a level we say would be more realistic if you were trying to take this plane below a radar level in the strait and it is going to have to be about here. If you bring up the other vantage point, mitchell, this is the aircraft, the simulator here showing it now. This plane is about 100 feet off the deck. Thats where you would have to be to try to avoid any kind of radar. It would be extremely noisy. It would be what would it be like to handle this. Really stressful. Really noisy. Just dangerous. It would have been night time. This would have been suicidal. So take us up. So then theres another way. We could try to explain this. Maybe that is they werent trying to avoid radar but what they were trying to avoid is other aircraft, commercial aircraft. Get down low enough they are out of the primary plane where any planes will be. In other words, one way you depict this makes it look sinister hiding. If you put it the other way and say, no, they are trying to avoid other planes. It looks like they might be dealing with another accident and trying to be safe and not harm other aircraft. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. We will get reaction from Geoffrey Thomas, the editor in chief of airline ratings. Com. Richard quest also with me here on the set in new york. Geoffrey, we saw martin demonstrate the flight 370 may have flown as low as 4,000 feet. What would make a plane descent or drop to that level . It is an interesting question, don. It had been speculated when the information was first rumored a few weeks ago out of malaysia, they might have been terrain hugging to avoid radar. It seems to support the theory that this was a very deliberate action combined with the altitude changes that we had known about and also the information which cnn got a few days ago that the airplane had flown completely around indonesia. It all seems to paint a picture of trying to avoid primary military radar. Richard, what more do we know about the altitude drop and why the info is coming out now. Remember we heard the drop to 12,000 feet. We had numerous altitude reports. The first said it was up to 45 and then down to 2 3. Then one at 12,000 and that wasnt for radar but to avoid traffic and now this one says it went under 4,000 and tried to avoid radar. But heres the contradiction on this one. Because they say it did disappear from radar, this source and reappeared again. So we dont know why that source said it disappeared from radar and reappeared again. We have to treat it with a lot of this we knew but not the altitude. I have to ask you, you wrote an article explaining a couple of scenarios how the plane would have broken up if it crashed over the water. Lay those out for us, will you . I want to add something to what you just said. If it did go down to that altitude of 4,000, 5,000 feet, what happened after that . If it continued to that altitude the rest of the flight it wouldnt have gone anything like the distance we now know it did go because it would have youed too much fuel. It is implying if it was at 4,000, 5,000 feet it would have to askrecend to the full alt tu where the search is targeted now. I take great objection to the stuff that this stuff is let out bit by bit and inferences are made by various people drawing different conclusions to it. This is less than accurate. If we were to be really fair about this and take this seriously, wed want to see a complete radar map, a continuous complete radar picture, not fragments. Any way, don, to get back to your original question, exactly how this aircraft hit the ocean is crucial. We dont know that. But there could be a huge difference in the type of debris field that it creates according to which way it went in. If it went in a powered kind of dive it would have broken up in to millions of pieces because thats what happened to an md11 that went in to the atlantic off of the coast of halifax. On the other hand, if it went in similar to the air france 447 in a relatively stable condition it would have broken up in to a number of large pieces, and many smaller pieces, but i think it is fascinating now, don, that we still have not had any sighting at all of any piece of wreckage. It is pretty interesting that Angus Houston, thes the australian commentator who is measured in what he says. I think it is admirable in the way he conducts the press conferences. He is very measured. He made it clear until they have wreckage theres no proof of what has happened. He is talking in this case not about wreckage that is floating but wreckage beneath the ocean. As you have been saying, the area has been narrowed to 18,000 square miles today. Thats an enormous area. In the end what you have to go for is an area probably no larger than a few city blocks. So we have to get from 18,000 square miles to an area of no larger than a few city blocks to have any chance of finding this. Yeah. I want to ask you, how optimistic i understand your scenario about the chances, down to a few city blocks, but do you believe these five signals the searchers have picked up so far, alleged fifth, are the pings from the black boxes . Yes, i do. I think we got very lucky. I think the search had to start very late because we moved the 700 miles further north. Its worth remembering, if they were searching in the original area, further to the south it would have been impossible to deploy this equipment because the weather and seas are so bad. Im encouraged by this. I think the australians have been careful about what they are encouraging us to expect. I think the big question is what happens when the pings stop . Is there an equipment gap between the broad stroke searching done by the ping detector and the very specific targeted searching done by torpedo size. The bluefin21. I want you to stick around and everyone to stick around here. We have breaking news in this country. Nine people are dead after a fiery collision between a tour bus and a fedex truck in glenn county, california. California Highway Patrol says the passengers on the bus were students from Southern California on their way to visit a college. We will bring you more details as soon as we get them. When we come right back, i want to bring in my team of experts to weigh in on the big mystery s of flight 370. What malaysia knew and when they knew it. Gunderman group is a go. Yes not just a start up. An upstart. Gotta get going. Gotta be good. Good . Good. Growth is the goal. 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Jeff wise, mary schavio, former Inspector General of the department of transportation is now an attorney for victims of transportation accidents. Lieutenant colonel michael kay, a former adviser to the u. K. Ministry of defense. Tim till mon, an American Airlines pilot and Fran Townsend, Homeland Security adviser to president bush and Geoffrey Thomas in perth all back with me now. And clive irving. Listen, guys, i have breaking news in to cnn. This is according to the Associated Press. Richard will tell you what our affiliates in australia is reported. The Associated Press is reporting that this is breaking news from australian Prime Minister said the sermers are confident that it is coming from missing planes black box. He says they are confident they are coming from missing planes black box. Geoffrey, you are in australia. Hang on, richard it is pretty much the Australian Networks in some shape or form are reporting the same comment. Im guessing the Prime Minister made comments entering or leaving a building. Geoffrey, what do you know about this . Theres the Associated Press tweet right there. What do you know, Geoffrey Thomas . You are quoting ap, thats great. That confirms what we were hearing here that the Prime Minister of australia was going to make an announcement, or make possibly make an announcement. Thats just rumor at this stage. We dont have are any confirmation at all. But one of the things yep. But again, that is not cnns reporting and we are reporting what our affiliates in australia put out and the Associated Press. Again, we want to tell you that this should be perceived with a bit of caution here. Cnn has not confirmed that. But the Associated Press is reporting that the Prime Minister is saying he is confident, and again im just giving you the quote here, the australian Prime Minister says searchers are confident that signals are coming from missing planes black box. We dont know the context. We dont know the context and the comment is interesting and demands discussion. It is not revolutionary because we have had similar from Angus Houston but it is setting a scenario and creating a picture of what the thinking now is in in the officialdom in australia. We want to be clear, mary schavio, this is not coming from Angus Houston the man in charge of the search but from the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister could have made some offhanded comment leaving a press conference or trying to repeat what Angus Houston had said and didnt say it exactly. Because Angus Houston has said he is confident it is coming from a device which is, which would be a black box. A flight data recorder. Yeah. Go ahead, mary. Again, i would expect to hear this from Angus Houston. Hes so far been good to his word. He said when he has something to announce he will call a press conference and announce it. He was oopt mystic on his last press conference. This is perhaps the latest ping they have picked up, once analyzed was with exceedingly goochld id like to wait and hear it from the leader of the task force. Clive irving, as you are hearing this information, would you be surprised by this coming from the Prime Minister rather than the person heading the search . Well, i hope its a consider canned comment by the Prime Minister because its very important if it comes out of the mouth of the Prime Minister and it is endorsing the mood th