Ukraine. Crimea voting to secede from the country and join russia. This morning the world refusing to recognize the landslide vote. Whats next for the people of ukraine, and will russia fight to create an addition to its country . We are live with what youve missed overnight. Good morning and welcome to early start. Im rosa flores. And im john berman. It is monday, march 17th, 5 00 a. M. In the east. First to the breaking, new developments in the search for Malaysia Airlines flight 370. This weekend the mystery, it deepened, as malaysian officials finally admitted this jet with 239 people on board was flying for many hours after its crew last spoke with air traffic controllers. And they believe it was turned deliberately off course. The search area has expanded again deep into kazakhstan and south into the southern indian ocean. Authorities are now looking into every passenger on the plane and the flight crew, a 53yearold captain and his 27yearold 1st officer. This weekend, both of their homes were searched. Investigators removing a Flight Simulator from the captains home. There are so many questions this morning. It is ten days after that jet first disappeared. Were going to talk to jim clancy right now in kuala lumpur. Jim, whats the latest . Reporter well, the latest right here is were expecting to get a briefing by malaysian authorities while investigators continue their probe of the pilots, their probe of all of the passengers as you describe. Some people beginning to wonder how it is that the flight crew would have allowed the pilot to veer that far off course, if it indeed was the pilot and not some other problem on board the aircraft. So, there are a lot of questions here today. There are questions coming from the families, mostly the chinese family members who are searching for their loved ones, hoping to see them again, blaming malaysias government as well as the airlines for not being forthcoming with the details, for leaving the search last week focused for so long on the South China Sea, when radar records by the malaysians themselves clearly showed that the plane had left the South China Sea on route to the indian ocean. So, all of these things add up. While the search continues to expand, new zealand, australia, south korea, japan, the United States and other countries all offering up aerial resources for reconnaissan reconnaissance, trying to cover much of that southern quadrant there, the countries like india and pakistan saying that we have searched our radar records, we have no trace of this aircraft. Were still waiting to hear from a number of countries as they try to eliminate the possibilities here. Were not in a position to pinpoint the plane, to look for the positive. Many times in this investigation, at least at this point, john, theyre going to have to settle just to eliminate some of the possibilities that did not happen. No, rule things out. That can be crucial in any investigation. Jim, there is a new report in the new strait times suggesting that these pilots were doing something called terrainmasking, flying below 5,000 feet. Explain to me what that means and what youre hearing about these possibilities. Reporter all right, possibilities. There is the correct word. We have talked with at least one of the investigators very close to this probe who has told us he, too, is pursuing possibilities, but these are theories about the flight. Could it have lowered its altitude in order to avoid radar . Did it rise above 40,000 feet in order to incapacitate the crew and the passengers, to render them unconscious . Theres all kinds of questions and theories that are being probed right now as they try to determine what possibly could have happened. What can we eliminate as a possibility . What is physically possible . What is physically impossible . Some of these theories about the altitude are based on radar records that everyone knows can be notoriously inaccurate, inaccurate because the plane was so far from the source of the radar, getting an accurate reading on altitude simply isnt that good. John . All right, so as of now, that report from the new strait times, no confirmation of that whatsoever. Just one of the many things right now that investigators are considering as they try to piece together what limited facts there are in this investigation. Our thanks to jim clancy in kuala lumpur. And as we mentioned, investigators are taking a very close look at the two men who were flying this jet, searching their home over the weekend and asking, why did that captain have a Flight Simulator for his own personal use . Saima mohsin has been looking into that part of the story, and saima, can you hear me . Are you with us . Oh, there she is. Reporter yes, i can hear you. Tell us whats the latest this morning regarding the pilots. We know that their homes were scoured over the weekend, that Flight Simulator was found. What are you hearing . Reporter yeah, that happened right across the weekend. What we know is that patrol cars were visiting both the pilot and copilot, the 1st officers house, for the past week since the disappearance of the flight, mh370. They were visiting every day, but they hadnt gone inside the house. Now, saturday was when things changed, when we first heard that the investigators are going ba back, they are reviewing every Single Person on board. Of course, that would be the crew and the passengers. And of course, the two crucial people who were flying the plane that night it disappeared, the pilot and copilot. We caught them just as they were leaving the copilots home. They were holding shopping bags, actually. Were not sure what was inside. I questioned them, why are you here, what were you looking for, are these people under some kind of particular investigation . They wouldnt answer us. They would simply say no comment. That was saturday. We understand they went back again sunday, and we know that sunday police rebuilt this Flight Simulator. This crucially was found in the pilot, captain zaharies home. They have rebuilt this Flight Simulator. They are now taking a look through it. They are still taking a look through it today. Theyve been doing that for the past two days. Were not sure what theyre looking for, were not sure what theyre finding so far, but they are trying to piece together, if there is, indeed, anything on that Flight Simulator that might give anything away. Heres what i know about it. Ive spoken to a friend of captain zaharie, peter chong. He told me that, look, this is something very normal, you know, dont worry about it. This is a Flight Simulator thats been built by an aviation enthusiast. Captain zaharie loved his job, he wanted to bring it home. He invited friends over to have a go on this Flight Simulator. It was nothing he was hiding. And in fact, he used to practice different scenarios and talk about them with his friends, trying them out in snowstorms, landing in difficult terrain. So, one poignant piece, rosa, is that he said that apparently, captain zaharie said i love setting myself these challenges, but in real life, its never that tough. Rosa . You know, we know little of the evidence, like you mentioned, the other evidence that was recovered from that home, other than the simulator. What about interviews with family or friends or acquaintances of these two people, of the pilot and the copilot . Reporter yeah, theyve both had their families sorry, investigators have spoken to both their families. We understand both on saturday and sunday police have spoken to them both. We havent seen anything of the two families since the disappearance of the flight. Obviously, you can imagine, they must be incredibly distraught and disturbed by the disappearance, not knowing whats happened to them. Ive been speaking to friends, family, next of kin of all the passengers here at various hotels that theyve been put up in here in kuala lumpur, and you can just imagine the psychological trauma they are going through. Some of them describe it as an emotional roller coaster. What we do know about the families is that captain zaharie was married to his wife, fisa. They had three children, two sons and a daughter in her 20s who still lived at home. The sons lived away from home. One of them was married and he had a grandchild, who apparently he doted on, according to his friend, peter. Now, the other 1st officer, the copilot, we know much less about him, but we do know that he still lived at home, he was in his late 20s. He lived at home with his parents, which is not uncommon in malaysian culture and society here. And that he was also just starting out in his career, really. But what i learned is that the neighborhood was incredibly proud of him. They said, you know, we had a pilot amidst us, and we all hope that that he comes back home safely. In fact, theyve been holding regular prayers every night. Rosa . Saima mohsin live for us in kuala lumpur. We appreciate the perspective. Thank you. Want to get more perspective on the investigation from steve moore. Hes a former supervisory special agent with the fbi. He oversaw investigations into al qaeda. Hes also a pilot. He joins us from los angeles. Steve, i want to start with the malaysian investigation right now, the fact that it took them a week to take possession of that Flight Simulator and go through it, the fact that they didnt scramble jets to trace those radar pings that was passing over Malaysian Air space one week ago when that flight disappeared. How confident are you right now in the quality of this investigation . Im not very confident at all about the quality of the malaysian investigation. Ive done investigations in that region years ago on al qaeda cases, and there is a tendency to jump to conclusions and to ignore the obvious. What im seeing here is a lot of speculation on their part that theyre coming out with as fact. You know, it was possibly terrain masking, or it went to 45,000 feet to incapacitate passengers. Its conclusitory and inaccurate. You mentioned the terrain masking. There is a report this morning in the new strait times suggesting whoever was flying that plane was flying below 5,000 feet, something called terrain masking. Explain to me what exactly that means, why someone would do it, and whether you think thats a credible lead to be following right now. Well, the reason you would terrain mask is you can fly down low enough to where the radar horizontally cant see you. Its kind of like losing your cell phone signal. But theres really no way that im aware of that they can pick up the altitude on that plane once the transponders turned off. So, its wild speculation, i believe. One of the other things thats developed over the last few days is this notion that the acars system, one of the flight tracking systems, the Data Transmission systems, was shut down before the last vocal contact, before the pilot said, all right, goodnight. What does that tell you . Again, its speculation, because what theyre saying is, theyre giving an intent, a motive, a conclusion to an act that theyve seen. Something turns off, something ceases to work, and they dont say it ceases to work. They say it was intentionally turned off. Well, i dont know that you have any way of knowing whether power was disrupted to that equipment or whether a hand came up and turned the knob. So, i think theyre making a lot of conclusatory statements that are confusing the issue and leading people off into different tangents. You spent a lot of time with the fbi. What are the concerns of the fbi, if you were working on the investigation, what would you be trying to do to go through the investigation and to break through to malaysians to get them to accept more help . Ive lived this before during the bombing of the the investigation of the bombing of the Jw Marriott Hotel in jakarta, indonesia, just across the street. We couldnt get permission to bring as many fbi agents as we needed to properly investigate. The malaysian im sorry, the indonesians couldnt process the crime scene. We had to depend on the australians. And then we find out that they were Holding Information back from us. So, i cant describe the level of frustration and how it really makes it almost impossible to conduct an efficient investigation. Youre a pilot as well. You know, what strikes you right now about what were hearing . What strikes me is that it seems to me to be hard to i mean, theres no explanation as to why an emergency locator transmitter hasnt gone off in the plane crashed. And at the same time, there is no explanation for me on how you can land a plane with 239 people on board, a 777, and not have somebody notice or see something. So, one of the two things is an anomaly. You either have a bad elt or you have some kind of weird situation where its on the ground and people have been able to hide it. I personally dont believe that its safely on the ground. I believe the other scenario is more likely. Steve moore, thank you so much for being with us, helping us to dissect this a little bit and understand the investigation and the frustrations involved with this investigation right now. Hopefully, well check back with him in a little bit. Appreciate it. Any time. There is a lot, of course, that we dont know, but we do know there were 239 people on that plane, including three americans, but most were chinese nationals, and their anger at the airline and the malaysian government is growing by the day. Pauline chiou is live in beijing with that part of the story. Pauline, good morning. Reporter good morning to you, rosa. There is so much frustration among these family members here in this hotel behind me. Were going into the second week of this mystery, and to be perfectly frank, they are just dumbfounded at the way this investigation has gone and the many directions its gone. Now, earlier today, we were in this hotel, and the video that youre looking at is of tempers flaring yesterday as relatives are trying to get answers and as also they were responding to a suggestion by Malaysia Airlines that they might be able to go home and that Malaysia Airlines would pay their return journey home. That was taken as an insult by these family members. Now, today, the relatives are going to be attending another briefing this evening, so were waiting to see what happens there. But earlier, one father of a passenger spoke with journalists. His name is mr. Wen, and he was very critical of the malaysian government. He said malaysia talked nonsense and lied, which delayed the search. We want an explanation for this. This is totally different from a plane crashing or having some sort of a problem, he says. Theyve cheated us and made the disaster worse. That is a sentiment that many of these families feel today on this monday in the second week. And keep in mind, rosa, many of these families are not only from beijing, theyre from all corners of china. They had to fly in from two, three hours away, and their lives are in limbo. They have no idea when theyre going to check out of this hotel and find out what exactly happened to that plane. Rosa . So many things in limbo, including their emotions because of their loved ones, because they dont know where their loved ones are at this point. Thank you so much. Pauline chiou live in beijing for us. So sad. So incredibly sad. How do you start to pick up the pieces when you dont know anything . Still ahead, much more on the mysterious disappearance of malaysian jetliner flight 370. But first, breaking news out of ukraine. Crimea voting to leave the country and join russia. Right now crimeas leader is heading to moscow, an emergency legislative session being held, and of course, the world is watching. We are live next. Dad, why are you getting that . Is there a prize in there . Oh, theres a prize, all right. [ male announcer ] inside every box of cheerios are those greattasting little os made from carefully selected oats that can help lower cholesterol. Is it a superhero . Kinda. What if it were more than something to share . 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