Feet. It disappeared, then reappeared on radar, they say. Was this to avoid detection . Is this proof of a criminal act . Were live with all the breaking details. Another change. Investigators now say it was the pilot, not the copilot, who uttered the last words from the cockpit. So what does that tell us . And a new ping coming from the ocean floor leading authorities to narrow the search zone even more as they try to zero in on those critical black boxes from flight 370. Hello, everyone, im john berman. Michaela is off today. Its 11 00 a. M. In the east. 8 00 a. M. Out west. And we begin this hour with the breaking news on several fronts in the mystery of flight 370. Cnn sources say after the plane took that mysterious left turn, it disappeared from radar, flying, they say, about 120 nautical miles before radar, they claim, before over malaysia before reappearing. Was it deliberately flown as low as 4,000 feet to avoid radar detection . Thats a key question. Plus, malaysia just now confirming that its air force did send aircraft out to search for flight 370 shortly after it was reported missing. Weve never heard that before. And our sources say investigators are now confident that it was the pilot who was the last person to speak to air traffic vocontrollers. The voice saying good night malaysian 370. For weeks we were told it was the copilot. In the meantime, crews looking for the wreckage now have new signals coming from the deep. The Australian Agency coordinating the search says this time it was an airplane that detected a possible black box signal from sonar buoys in the ocean. And not the ship with the pinger locator that it detected four previous sets of signals. We want to start, though, first with the investigative angle. These new revelations coming out from malaysian officials. Nic robertson joins us live from kuala lumpur. Nic, you broke this news this morning, the notion that the plane disappeared, then reappeared. Lay out the implications here about altitude and what this means now for the investigation. Reporter well, this is the first time, john, that weve heard about any change in altitude of this aircraft. This is an important detail for investigators. Ist its something weve been chasing for some time. What weve heard is after it flew back across the malaysian peninsula, you remember it did a left turn back across the malaysian peninsula, it gets out over the straits then it disappeared from military radar, reappears about 120 nautical miles further northwest. Now, were told that this has been deduced, that this disappearance has been deduced by those lack of radar traces, and they believe that the aircraft was downed at about 4,000 or 5,000 feet above sea level, missing, avoiding the military radar. They say the reason this could have been happening is because the airways are quite busy in that area. Civilian traffic in that area, normal altitude about 35,000 feet. So it could be that the aircraft was dipping down there. Another analysis being offered by a former Malaysian Airlines pilot is that it was trying to avoid the malaysian military radar completely but comes up a little too soon. And its picked up by that radar on the other side. The bottom line is, though, the aircraft appears to have been taken fully under control along 4,000 to 5,000 feet above sea level, fully under control, back up before it then continues its journey around the western side of indonesia. Again there skirting indonesian radar, john. The key point you point out, theyre deducing this. Theyre reaching this conclusion. They dont know for a fact it was at 4,000 or 5,000 feet. This is a conclusion theyre coming to in their investigation. Lets talk about another key fact you broke this morning. Again, its 34 days after the fact. You were told that the malaysian military did send search planes into the air into the straits of malacca to the west of malaysia to look for flight 370. Reporter yeah, weve been getting further details on that as well. This happened, were told, at about 8 00 a. M. In the morning. At about 7 30 a. M. In the morning, the military was informed by Malaysian Airlines that flight mh370 was missing. There was believed to be a turn of an aircraft, that lefthand turn, but the data, the flight data, hadnt been fully checked. So as a precautionary measure, were told that the air force put up search aircraft into the malacca straits. Were told also now that they put up search aircraft into the South China Seas as well to try to see if there was anything that they could find out about this missing aircraft. Obviously, this action came way later, about six hours after the aircraft had passed through that area. They have no chance of spotting it, but those aircraft, were told, were put up as a precautionary measure by the military. We have not been told that before. This is new information. Theyre now saying not only did they send planes into the straits of malacca but also into the South China Sea. I want to make sure im clear about that. Reporter this is something that weve been checking and verifying with one of the sources that provided this information. This is what were being told. Into the malacca straits and on the South China Seas, obviously on the original path of that flight, john. All right. Thats very good to know. Well talk about why thats important in just a second. Nic robertson, thank you so much again, breaking this news this morning. So were left with two Big Questions here. Could these new details help in the search, and why on earth are we just hearing about them now . What took so long . Our aviation analyst, mary schiavo, and jeff wiser here. Mary, lets start with the dip in altitude first. Lets, of course, take it at face value first. Malaysian Officials Saying they believe this plane may have dipped below 4,000 or 5,000 feet. They have reached this conclusion because they say this plane disappeared from radar for about 120 nautical miles. Why, if we believe them, could a plane do that . Why would a plane dip that low . Well, it would dip that low could dip that low for a variety of reasons. One, it had a depressurization, had to go remember, it was at 35,000 feet. So it had to go down under 10,000 feet to get down to a level an altitude where people could breathe without oxygen, without pressurization. Two, it could get down there to escape the busy commercial traffic lanes up above 18,000 feet. Without a transponder, you would be at risk for a Collision Avoidance problem because your Collision Avoidance equipment wouldnt work. Youd need the transponder for that. So there are lots of reasons to go down. The issue is, you know, this is suspect information because they have it on radar, and then they dont have it on radar. This is a boeing 777. This is not you know, this is not a jet copter. It doesnt go from 35,000 feet to 5,000 feet in the blink of an eye. So didnt radar pick up the ascent and the descent . Something about this isnt right, and i think we need more information. So even if they did dip down to 5,000 feet, they should have seen more than just all at once its there, and all at once its not. It doesnt work that way. Jeff wise, this doesnt seem to pass the smell test for mary. What do you think . Not to mention the fact were only learning about it now, 34 days into this investigation. Yeah, its late. Theres a bunch of problems. Theres a bunch of reasons you wouldnt want to go down to 3,000 feet. For one plane, it takes a lot of energy to go down and come back up. Theyre not designed to go at such low altitude. Also they burn a lot of fuel. You might be worried about the fact that passengers have got cell phones in their pockets. If you go to about 3,000 feet, you enable them to open their phones and call their relatives. Obviously that didnt happen. So that also would lend me to doubt this report. The fact that it wasnt on radar doesnt necessarily mean it had to go so low to avoid. Theres a bunch of reasons why you think it might not be on radar for a little while. It koob behind another plane . There could have been other things going on . Sometimes radar just has gaps in it. Its sort of you know, youre painting the sky with like a flashlight. Its a big leap theyre taking to say it went to 4,000 feet. To stay on this point, mary, to be clear, if it is to be believed it dipped that low, it would have been there was something mechanical going on in the cockpit, that something was going wrong and they were veering off course to try to fix that issue. Sure, it could. But remember, they did all this, and according to thmalaysian authorities today, they went from 35,000 feet, dipped down to 3,000 or 4,000 feet and then go back up to altitude which they said they were back up to altitude when they picked them up again. They could have done it for depressurization, but then why go back up to altitude . It makes no sense. You wouldnt want to hop back up into the busy traffic lanes. Theres so much that doesnt make sense about that. Why get there . Who gets it there . Why, then, turn again . So many more questions. We are going to ask you guys all about this. Jeff and mary, dont go anywhere because we have to talk about these other revelations today about the pilots last words from the cockpit, about this idea that they sent out search planes, where they sent them, and if this is now contradictory information because frankly, it does sound like it. Some other headlines were following at this hour. Authorities in pennsylvania have taken a cell phone and computers from the home of a 16yearold charged in wednesdays stabbing rampage at a Small High School there. Alex hribal faces four counts of attempted homicide, 21 counts of aggravated assault. He will be tried as an adult. Authorities say hribal ran through Franklin Regional High School with two kitchen knives, wounding 20 students and a Security Officer before the assistant principal tackled him. Just last hour, one student, brett hurt, recalled the attack. I didnt really know what was going on at the time because i was walking down the hallway with a friend of mine. Gracie evans. And then it just all, like, hit. She was screaming, and i was just standing there. Everything just went like i didnt even know what was going on. I was just so surprised, i could barely move because i got stabbed in the back. I had to have help going to the next room and her putting pressure on my wound to make sure i didnt bleed out. Terrifying. Nato secretarygeneral saying the 40,000 or so Russian Troops near ukraines border are ready for combat, not Training Like moscow says. But russian officials assure the world that there is nothing to worry about, at least according to them. This comes as the clock ticks on the prorussian protesters who have taken over some of the ukraine government buildings. Kiev telling them to put down their arms and walk away by tomorrow, and they will not be prosecuted. The u. S. Has accused russia of stirring up the protests as an excuse to send its military into ukraine. Two years before the Boston Marathon bombings, russian authorities declined to give the fbi Key Information about the suspected mastermind of the attack. This is according to an inspector generals review reported by the new york times. The information according to the i. G. Most likely would have prompted deeper scrutiny into tamerlan tsarnaev. The entire state of washington and parts of oregon were without 911 service this morning. It is up and running again now. Authorities have been given alternative numbers to call in case of an emergency. Theyre investigating now the cause of this outage. Ahead for us at this hour, a fresh ping heard in the ocean in the search for flight 370. And stunning revelations from the malaysian government. Why are we now, 34 days into this search, just learning key details about flight 370s final hours . Thats next. Ameriprise asked people a simple question in retirement, will you outlive your money . Uhhh. No, that cant happen. Thats the thing, you dont know how long it has to last. Everyone has retirement questions. So ameriprise created the exclusive. Confident retirement approach. Now you and your ameripise advisor can get the real answers you need. Well, knowing gives you confidence. 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To talk with an Insurance Expert about everything that comes standard with our base auto policy. And if you switch, you could save up to 423. Liberty Mutual Insurance responsibility. Whats your policy . I want to talk more now about the startling new details coming from the malaysian government just today. 34 days into the investigation, investigators now say it was flight 370s captain, zahari shaw, who said those last words to air traffic controllers, good night, malaysian 370. For a long time, we actually thought they were different words spoken by the copilot. Im joined again by mary schiavo and jeff wise. Before i talk about the last words, i want to go back to another key piece of information we just learned from nic robertson. The idea that the malaysian military is saying that it sent planes up into the air to search for flight 370 the minute or when they learned it was missing, several hours later. Not looking for debris. This was looking for the missing plane or a sign for it in the sky there. Mary, there have been questions all along, why didnt the malaysians scramble jets . Now 34 days for the first time, theyre suggesting they sort of did. Is that strange to you . Well, its strange because of the time lag. I mean, the communications stopped, and then what occurred in the next, you know, period of time, few hours or even, you know, minutes, et cetera, and then much later they scrambled, not escort jets, but search jets to go search for it. You know, theres just too many hours there that are unaccounted for. Its very unusual. I think there needs to be a lot more information about what happened in that intervening time, in that gap. Theres a big gap there when their planes missing. And its also key to know, they searched in the straits of malacca. That is to the west of malaysia. You know, when they started looking for debris, the first place they looked was the South China Sea, to the east of the malaysian peninsula. Now at this late hour, were actually learning theyre saying they sent planes out to the South China Sea to first look for the plane also. The story there keeps changing, and its a little bit contradictory, jeff. Well, yeah, indeed. If they, in fact, were searching over the malacca straits at 8 00 a. M. That morn, it implies they were aware of the track, that they figured that into their calculations, that they were really on the ball in all the places that they needed to be. Were they really . I mean, this is coming out really, really late in the game. Is it true . Is it just put out there to burnish their own reputation . You know, and a part of this reporting is that even though they went out there to search, they didnt tell the other civil authorities about it. I mean, it boggles the imagination. It does. Mary, today we learned for the first time from these same malaysian officials they believe it was the pilot who spoke the last words from the cockpit, as we just said for a while they were saying it was the copilot. Does it matter, in and of itself, in this investigation who said the last words since we now believe they were so benign, good night, malaysian 370 . Well, it does for a couple of reasons. We need to compare that with who made the other communications, and if there was a switch, why was there a switch . Usually its the pilot not flying who handles the radio communications. So at that point had the pilot and copilot switched in terms of who was actually flying . Or is the copilot still in the cockpit . And clearly there was no they said there were no signs of distress, problems, any hints of stress in the pilots voice from captains and other pilots who flew with the captain at malaysia airline. So at least up to that point, things are normal, and maybe the pilot had switched to the pilot not flying position. But it still sounds just completely benign. We do not know that. We do not know when and if they switched. They do say that they heard no sign of a third person in the cockpit, jeff. And they also say there was no sign of duress in his voice. Were taking their word for it there. But how could they have thought for so many weeks that it was one guy . Then all of a sudden they decide its the other guy . I mean, is it that complicated to figure out whos talking . And if it is that complicated and hard to figure out whos talking, are they right now, or were they right before . So its hard to really make sense of what we should assume from this information. I think the questions in and of themselves here are frankly the story. Jeff wise, mary schiavo, thanks so much for being with us, trying to make sense of this right now. All of a sudden theres a lot new to try to make sense of. Appreciate it. Ahead, hes been called a typical young kid from are an ozzy and harriet family. We know that cant be the case. Now 16yearold alex hribal is charged in a mass stabbing at his school. What he told the authorities who took him into custody next. Frequent heartburn . The choice is yours. Chalky. Not chalky. Temporary. 24 hour. Lots of tablets. One pill. You decide. Prevacid. 24 hour Franklin Regional High School is closed again today as that community tries to make sense of a stabbing rampage that left almost two dozen people wounded. 16yearold alex hribal faces