Referendum invalid. We will hear from senator john mccain, who just returned from ukraine, and talk about whats next with the german, brit i and french ambassadors to the United States. Now to the very latest on the search for flight 370. Malaysian Authorities Say the search for the missing jetliner has entered a new phase. The search area has been significantly expanded and the nature of the search has changed from focusing mainly on seas, we are now looking at large tracts of land crossing 11 countries and deep and remote oceans. Other highlights from this mornings News Conference with malaysian authorities, 25 nations including the u. S. Are involved in the search. Malaysian investigators are examining the captains Flight Simulator taken from his home. The planes pilots did not request to fly together. Authorities say it is possible the plane was on the ground when some satellite signals were sent. And the ceo of Malaysian Airlines says there were no Hazardous Materials on board. In at development, the times of india is reporting they are denying the possibility the jetliner flew over india en route to central asia. I want to turn to cnns pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr. A significant wider search area, does the u. S. Need to send more assets to the region . Reporter well, you know, its hundreds of thousands of square miles. Lets be clear. 11 countries in central asia to the north and thousands of square miles in the indian ocean to the south. Sending more to look at all of this, where do you look. This is the dilemma facing all of the countries trying to help search. A lot of people are talking act slilts, but satellites dont just go wandering around up in the sky. They have to know where to send these things to some extent. There are navy ships. There are helicopters. There are aircraft search, but this is going to be very slow going. This area is just massive, candy. Whenever i see where the plane possibly was, when they picked up that last satellite proof or supposed proof that it was there, it just seems almost impossible to me that that plane could have flown north over all those countries where, by the way, there is lot of radar and a lot of countries involved in some pretty contested territory, and not been detected. Reporter this is, you know, one of the, you know, were going to call it a theory, call it a hypothesis because, of course, no one knows for sure. But i have to tell you, all of the officials ive been speaking to are saying pretty much same thing. Look at that map. India, pakistan, china, myanmar, thailand, all these countries. They may have very military capabilities, but these are skies, this is air Traffic Control in this region, it is very heavily watched by both military radars and civilian air Traffic Control radars. Does anybody really think that, you know, a large aircraft went into one of these countries without them noticing . It begins to, you know, sort of defy logic. It is possible. Anything in this terrible tragedy is possible. But the sources ive been talking to are saying theyre trying to focus on logic. And to them that dictates that maybe it probably went into the ocean to the south. They find it very hard to believe that it could have gone into one of these land areas and not been noticed, not picked up by somebody. Barbara starr at the pentagon for us. Thanks, barbara. Joining me now around the table, chad sweet, former cia officer and current ceo of the chertoff group, and richard amalafia, an expert on the boeing 777. Let me show here. By and large it doesnt look like terrorism and i think its the biggest thing of all. Nobody said, hey, we did this. Two points. Im getting signals to the opposite, there are signals of potential foul play. There are a couple scenarios we may not have seen a claim of responsibility yet. One would be if all the numbers of the terrorist cell were on the plane itself and we saw something unfold like we did in united 93 where the passengers and crew actually overtook the terrorists and ultimately the plane crashed, you wouldnt have a claim of responsibility. Two other scenarios might be where the cell went beyond the aircraft but they didnt believe they accomplished the mission so they dont want to claim credit yet. The third is that the plane landed elsewhere. The plot hasnt fully unfolded yet. Theres a variety of scenario where is the lack of a claim of responsibility doesnt conclusively prove that this is not terrorism. I think as brar ba alluded to, when theres no proof of anything, almost anything seems possible. Let me talk to you about the 777. I have a couple of questions. First of all, is it true that you would have to actively turn off these Communications Systems . I think you were the one that said that would be like accidentally hot wiring a car. Yeah. The acar system basically youd have to rummage around, find the circuit breaker, rip it out of play. Transponder can be turned off. Its a deliberately turning off. You know what youre doing. You couldnt just hit it or thats exactly right. But the acar system, you have to actively rummage around. At that point you think if we go back and look at 9 11, 3 of the 4 aircraft that were used had their transponders turned off. We see time and time again, these terrorists are using this as part of their core playbook. Theyre obsess ld with aviation as one of the threat factors. It does raise the issue. No matter what happens here, no matter what we find, this is a teachable moment where weve identified vulnerability that needs to be addressed. If youre flying aircraft over a certain way, over with a certain number of passenger, should bit the case you cannot manually disable the transponders. Safety issues have to be addressed but its an important counterterrorism issue that has to be addressed. Tell me about the data blocks, what weve called the black boxes, the data bocks which basically would tell us recordings in the cockpit. Because we know u. S. Officials are looking at the cockpit saying somebody that knew something about this plane did these things deliberately. Could they have also messed with the data box and the voice boxes . When it comes to the emergency locator transmitter, you can mess around with that, yes. But on the other hand, you should have recording for up to two hours of what happened in the cockpit. Now, one possibility they left it on, kept fly, in which case it might be erased by just mere noise. That would be unfortunate. So it is possible they could find those at some point and not have the information that were all trying to figure out at that point. Right. If they flew for three hours after whatever struggle took place, if there was a struggle, its possible they may just find noise. What about reinforced doors . Is that strictly a u. S. Requirement . The whole thing after 9 11 was make it so you cannot get into the cockpit. Is there a possible that someone did get into the cockpit and forced these pilots . Youre touching on an important point because post9 11 we have implemented a number of security provisions that are in agreement with International Organizations to reinforce the cockpit. But at the core assumption is that is pilots are in the trusted inner circle. What weve seep in the case of the 1999 egyptian suicide flight by the pilot as well as what we may see here, which is all fingers are pointing right now to looking at the pilot having a simulator in his house, there are a number of indicators that would suggest that whoever did this knew how to disable the transponders and did it precisely at the moment of handle auch between air Traffic Control people might not have noticed right away. Correct. Youre touching on no matter how much we reinforce the cockpit door, we may have to ask the question of do we need additional screening of both psychological as well as security of the pilots themselves . Is there any wonder whether this particular 777 had a reinforced door . Its believed it was. It did have a reinforced door. Yes. By not, not just the flight attendants standing there with, you know, the drink cart. It had a door you actually were not supposed to be able to get into. Thats right. But of course you still have two people inside and a lot of people outside, and not just the possibility there are bad guys inside but the possibility they might be coerced by action outside. The flanlt aight attendant a gun and all that. Exactly. If we look at all the things were told happened, the transponder, no more voice contact, turning off the communications system, is there any way for that to happen by a failure of something on the plane . For the things that we know that did happen, could there have been something on the plane that would cause all those things to happen . Absolutely not. There are simply too many backup systems. This wouldnt happen just by accident. Thats what i would say too. Before theres been rightfully a lot of caution over not overly asserting this is some sort of foul play or terrorism but i think theres enough preponderance of the evidence, coincidental information the. Preponderance of the proof, its shifting to those who argue its not terrorism to those who have said it is. And so and we should say youre a huge supporter of the 777, you believe its p perfect plane and all that. You see no many way any accident could have caused any of this . Absolutely not. And of course the track record speaks for itself. Youve got an extraordinary 19year Service Record with 1,200 jets in service. There are 14 , 15 of world capacity, no fatalities associated with the design of the jet. When you look at this, it sounds to me youre both looking at somebody inside that cockpit did something to cause this plane to veer and maybe ran out of gas, maybe it was a suicide mission, Something Like that. Correct. And i think what well have to see in the coming days is on the voice recorder, the black box, there is an underwater beacon that will last for about 30 days for depths up to 14,000 feet. So the searchandrescue that will take place now, we have about 30 days to get it right and its a huge amount of area to cover. If this plaep did land in some other location there are about 600plus other airports it could have landed but well focus on the ones privately controlled you could land without having been dee texted. Well have you on later in the hour. Richard, well be back with you. When we get back to this story later, coming up, crimeans are voting to join russia or become an independent state. What does western europe do next . Predibut, manufacturings a prettin the United States do. Means advanced technology. We learned that Technology Allows us to be craft oriented. No ones losing their job. Theres no beer robot that has suddenly chased them out. The technology is actually creating new jobs. Siemens designed and built the right tools and resources to get the job done. Salegets up to 795 highwayeals the passamiles per tank. 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[ female announcer ] boost complete nutritional drink has 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d to support strong bones and 10 grams of protein to help maintain muscle. All with a delicious taste. Grandpa [ female announcer ] stay strong, stay active with boost. But something about spending this time together sailing past ancient glaciers in alaska makes you realize how old time is and how short life is. She can take all the time she wants. Princess cruises. Come back new. [ female announcer ] plan your sevenday cruise from just 549. Call your travel agent or 1800princess. I takbecause you cant beatrning for my frzero heartburn. N. Woo hoo [ male announcer ] prilosec otc is the number one doctor recommended frequent heartburn medicine for 8 straight years. One pill each morning. 24 hours. Zero heartburn. A turning point in ukraine. Voters in the countrys crimea region are casting ballots on whether to become independent or rejoin russia. Western nations have said they consider the referendum illegal. Nick paton walsh joins us from the capital, crimea. Nick, what have you seen today . Reporter well, results here have never been in doubt. Weve heard from the Prime Minister about twothirds have voted and they think about an 8 vote will go towards joining russia so it seems to be pretty much in the bag here. Celebrations are getting under way. You can see behind me the writings crimean spring. Really on the ground weve seen strange scenes. One colleague has seen two ballots stuffed into a box by one voter. Weve seen ourselves electoral officials expecting only a fifth of the people turning up to be on the electoral role. The rest are asked to show a passport and they decide on the spot whether or not to vote. But these small irregularities in a part of the world where often elections are about endorsing decisions politicians have made weeks earlier, those irregularities arent the big deal. The key thing is the fact there are 21,500 Russian Troops on this peninsula according to ukraine defenseman, whose presence have led this. Otherwise the ukrainian capitol would have prevented it from happening. The outstanding questions are what happens to the crimean troops. But celebrations under way behind me, candy. Earlier this morning arizona senator john mccain fresh off another trip to ukraine said while the situation in ukraine will not take a turn toward traditional war anytime soon, he did seem to concede that russia has won in the short term. And let me ask you, because just the tone of some of the things youve said lead me to believe that you do agree that crimea is gone and that now it is about protecting the rest of eastern ukraine. Candy, i hate to say that, because obviously it has an effect on those brave people in ukraine, including those 4,000 that are in bases in crimea. What i would like to see is a longterm commitment to the freedom and democracy and the assistance we can provide ukraine, including, over time, regaining crimea. That would be one of our goals. It is an integral part of that country. But it is not a shortterm goal at the moment. Id love to tell you otherwise. Joining me now, peter amman, germanys ambassador to the u. S. , britains, and frances ambassador to the u. S. We have a power panel here today. John mccain did seem to concede that crimea belongs to russia at the moment if not in legalities but certainly indeed. I cant agree with a lot of things john mccain said, but i think theres no doubt about it. This referendum was illegal. On the other hand, again, legally results dont count but is the fact of the matter on the ground that russia controls crimea . I think we have to wait and see how this turns out. We do not believe it to be constitutional or legal as peter says, but this referendum has taken place. It is a fraud and asking people what they think at the barrel of a gun is not exactly an exercise in participatory democracy. Lets see how this comes out. I think tomorrow you will see a close coordination between the International Community coming together to determine its response. We are a very long way from accepting crimea should be chopped up and handed on a plate to russia. Right. I dont expect the west, the United States, or any of your countries would accept it. Im trying to figure out if theres anything that you believe that will in the short term push president putin out of crimea. You know, candy, and you said it very well, as president Francois Hollande said, we cannot accept the validity of this pseudoconsultation. It is a violation of the crimean constitution and in International Law has no basis. We have to put things in perspective here. What is at stake in ukraine and in this crisis, one of the most dangerous crises since the end of the cold war, is number one the future of a country, ukraine, of its territorial integrity and sovereignty. Two, its also about the danger of returning to cold war, to an outbreak of nationalism in europe. And number three, you know, candy, accepting the russian fait accompli here would mean opening pandoras box and challenging orders worldwide. It is simply something that we cannot do. And we as a democracy, by the way, are the strongest when our values and our interests are aligned. And this is exactly the case in the ukrainian crisis. They are allied and that is why the europeans are together and americans are solidly together in supporting ukraine. Imposing costs and potentially high costs on russia. Whats a high cost on russia . What do you think that European Countries and the u. S. Would do in unison . Because there are russian interests in europe. Western europe certainly many countries are dependent or at least rely heavily upon russias gas. So what do you think you could get unanimity on to punish russia . Never seen such a degree of unanimity across the atlantic. We are singing from the same hymn sheet, as you say here. And well have the european Foreign Ministers meeting tomorrow. They will discuss sanctions for the first time probably including travel bans, visa bans and asset freezes. This is hard stuff. Across the board, travel bans across the board, asset freezing so you say to the russian e elites, sorry, youre not coming here, weve frozen your assets . They will hammer it out tomorrow, but let me say it clearly because it was discussed in the u. S. Quite often, the German Foreign policy is not written about anything about gas or oil. And the German Industry Federation has made it very cle