By the United States army. [ applause ] richard conday accepting on behalf of his father, Sergeant First Class felix m. Conday. Sergeant first class distinguished himself by acts of gallant tree above the call of duty by serving as an active platoon leader, third brigade, 82nd Airborne Division during combat operations republic of vietnam on april 4th, 1969. While entering a heavily wooded section, first class and his company encountered an enemy bunker complex. Following tactical artillery on the heavily secured army position, the platoon was selected to assault and clear the bunker fortifications. Moving out ahead of his platoon, he charged the first bunker claul crawling to the roof and without hesitating he proceeded to two additional bunkers, both of which he destroyed in the same manner of the first. Sergeant first class advanced 100 meters through the trees before coming under intense hostile fire selecting three men to accompany him, he maneuvered towards the enemys flanked position. Carrying a machine gun, he assaulted the nearest fortification killing the enemy in sight before running out of ammunition. After returning to three men with his empty weapon, he concentrated on the next bunker. Within ten meters of his goal, he was shot by an unseen assailant and soon died of his wounds. His extraordinary heroism and selflessness above the call and duty is keeping in the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States army. Welcome to the lead. Weve been watching president obama awarding 24 medals to world war ii veterans, korea, and vietnam. Were going to have a profile of one of those individuals, one of the three living recipients at the ceremony today later in the show. Let us turn now to the world lead. It is now 12 days since Malaysia Airlines flights 370 vanished with 239 people on board. While were all waiting for that aha moment, malaysian Authorities Say they have found nothing yet to indicate that this was a premeditated act. They even took a Flight Simulator from the captains house. So far no emails to indicate that this was a planned event. Investigators reviewed conversations with the cockpit and no data there. Someone likely reprogrammed the planes cockpit computer to veer off course. How do investigators know that . The New York Times reports that flight 370 reported the change through the Aircraft Communications addressing and reporting system, which you probably know now as acars. Lets bring in our aviation correspondent rene marsh. What are you hearing . Well, jake, there is so much confusion over what all of these Communications Systems that this aircraft had. Im told by officials that they have gotten this data that at some point someone changed the program of where this aircraft was headed and put in coordinates for it to head west from its course that it was over the gulf of thailand. Now, how that information was transmitted, that simply i dont know and thats one of the investigations that this brings up. They do know with certainty that the aircraft veered from its course on its way to beijing and did so on purpose because someone changed the heading in the computer system, jake. Rene, whether or not that was conveyed through the acars system, thats significant. Explain to us why . Well, you know, jake, i have spent the day talking to a lot of people familiar with the acars system and they are just baffled. They do not understand how anyone could get any information or data about whether a flight plan was changed midair or if something was preprogrammed into the flight Management System based on acars because they say this. Acars does not translate anything having to do with gps. Acars only gives specific information and thats information about the health of the plane. These pilots that i spoke to who are very familiar with the 777 say they dont know any way in which that particular system could let anyone know whether someone preprogrammed that turn into the original flight path or the itinerary, so to speak. Whether they are basing it on acars, whether they are basing it on data from radar, thats unclear. Different people have different sources. But heres why any of this really matters. Because you may be watching at home and you may say, okay, this is an incremental change here but it matters because if somebody did indeed preprogram something or that flight plan into the flight Management System a long time ago, then that would show essentially that someone was premeditated. This was a premeditated action. If it happened moments before the turn, then that would simply show that it was an emergency or perhaps there was an intruder. Jake . Very important detail. Rene and evan perez, thank you. Thats not the only new information that we have to reveal about flight 370. Now a second government is coming forward with radar data that supports the theory from malaysian authorities that the plane made a sharp and intentional turn off course. Crews are scouring along two potential flight paths among 2. 25 million square nautical miles which is an area about as big as the continental United States. Lets bring in jim sciutto. Jim, what are we hearing out of thailand today . This is radar data, as you say. Youll remember that earlier this flight path, this left turn off the original paddle up to beijing was first picked up by malaysian radar at three points along this path. We now learn that thai radar, covering an area like this, also picked up a blip from the plane going in this direction. First it picked it up when it was still Malaysian Air flight 370 and then it picked up another blip which they believe it to be the plane carrying it out here. Combined with the information that evan and rene were talking about, corroborating evidence that it carried out in this direction, investigators very confident thats what happened. The trouble is, where did it go from there . You have the two arcs that you just showed where the last bit of satellite data came which opens up the search area which is too big for this and the size of 3 million square miles, the size of the United States. Thats a problem. They have the plane coming this way. The trouble is, what happened then . Jim sciutto, stick around. Weve got a lot more to talk about. It now appears that the cockpit computer was reprogrammed. Why is that information so significant to investigators . Plus, could the pilots have done it to respond to a mechanical problem in the cockpit . 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Lots of developments today, the Thai Military radar and the fact that the cockpit was reprogrammed probably before they said to air Traffic Control all right, good night. What do think is the most helpful information . The thai radar but the most significant is the flight computer data. Theres more than one way to get that waypoint into the computer. The most obvious way is you are flying along and you have your navigation screen in front of you. Its a glowing computer screen and you see a waypoint that you want to go to and you punch in that waypoint code. Theres like four letters or numbers on that code and the plane turns or you can turn your auto pilot. You can instruct the auto pilot to turn and it will go to that waypoint and then thats in the computer but you didnt punch in it. So we know it happened. We know they were going to the waypoint but the biggest mystery is still how, why, who . But we at least now have a better heading thanks to the thai government. Most helpful. Lets talk for a second about the reason why its so significant whether or not this information about the direction of the plane being reprogrammed, whether it was transmitted through the acars system or not. Jim, if it was transmitted in a different way, then that means we have less of an idea of whether it was done because there was a crisis on the plane. Explain. Well, its a fair question. I think that one significance, one reading of this new information today or the confirmation of information about this being intentionally is that it does undermine the theory that some sudden catastrophic event on board caused this to happen. A fire in the cockpit . Maybe a slowmoving event could cause the pilot to make a change and look for a runway but not something that made all of the systems crash at once. Someone had the presence of mind and time to plug in a new direction. You could have had a crisis but it wasnt a sudden crisis. A bomb that ripped the plane apart. It looked like he at least had time to make that decision. Thats significant to a point. And then the other thing, of course, mary, is that if it was on the acars system, we believe the last transmission was at, i believe, 1 09 a. M. Whereas the last communication, all right, good night was two minutes after that. If this change in direction was reprogrammed before he said all right, good night, that means that there theoretically was not some kind of crisis that he was dealing with because he would have said that. Ordinarily the pilot not flying is the one that communicates and if they were having an onboard crisis, they would have said so and they would have tried to communicate not only with Traffic Control, you tell your problems back to your airline. Again, you use acars. But theres also some discrepancy on that timeline. At one point we said well, we didnt say that but the acars went silent and then the transponder did but now they are saying that they both occurred after the last transmission, after the last communication. So that information is going to have to catch up with the investigation because that is key to showing what they knew in the cockpit, what did they know and when did they know it . Thats sort of the clue that were looking for with that timing. Jim, i was talking to somebody who said that this kind of changing data is exactly why, when youre an investigator, youre not supposed to come up with a theory until you have all of the facts because then the inclination is to make the data fit the theory as opposed to vice versa. Same for journalists. You dont report the story until you know the facts. I spoke to intelligence officials again and im driving them crazy with the same questioning, has your appraisal changed with regard to terrorism . They say again, we havent closed that path. Thats their attitude. You can be sure theyve been doing their homework even before this search took place today. Checking their names against terror watch lists, et cetera, et cetera. It doesnt mean that they might not find somebody down the line that changes their mind on that but thats their position. And like you say, for other kinds of theories, was their smoke in the cabin, et cetera . Until they say that data, they are not going to sit with that theory at all. They are going to wait to see it. They havent had anything hard glet mary, youve done a lot of work with families of these sorts of tragedies. Whats the responsibility of the malaysian and u. S. Government when it comes to how careful they are in the information they release to the families . Because obviously they want information. They want anything they can get but at the same time, you have to be careful. You dont want to tell them one thing one day and correct it over the next. Over the years ive worked with hundreds of families in many different crashes and the hallmark of each of them is they want information and they are smart enough. Sometimes they are just terrible circumstances makes them able to take on all kinds of information and hunger for it. In that was in the United States, we have something called the family assistance act which is a law and that requires government officials to brief them sometimes daily on the information as it is unfolding. So not only does the fact that they dont know everything or the information is unfolding daybyday, the family want that information. So instead of shielding them from what you dont know f. It was in the United States of america, theyd have that briefing every day and the ntsb does do that. They take care of the families and provide them what they know and what they dont. And weve seen some very moving and disturbing images today from kuala lumpur of families threatening hunger strikes because they are so they want information. They want to know what happened. Ma mary schiavo and jim sciutto, thank you so much. Could any of the planes movements be explained by a catastrophic disaster in the cockpit . Coming up ill speak to a pilot who believes that they tried to save the plane. What were learning about the two small passengers that were on the plane. Coming up next. Co ive always found you dont know you need a hotel room until youre sure you do. Bartender thanks, captain obvious. Co which is what makes using the hotels. Com mobile app so useful. I can book a nearby hotel room from wherever i am. Or, i could not book a hotel room and put my cellphone back into my pocket as if nothing happened. Hotels. Com. I dont need it right now. Mayo . Corn dogs . You are so outta here aah [ female announcer ] the complete balanced nutrition of greattasting ensure. 24 vitamins and minerals, antioxidants, and 9 grams of protein. [ bottle ] ensure®. Nutrition in charge™. Welcome back to the lead, im jake tapper. Investigators are slowly gathering puzzle pieces for the missing flight 370. None of the pieces fit together. While the latest information shows that the program was intentionally programmed to steer off course, there is a si simpler explanation for why the plane vanished. Cnns athena jones has more. Reporter theories about what caused flight 370 to vanish abound. The acars movements were consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane. Reporter could hijacking or renegade pilot or terrorism explain a deliberate decision to turn the plane off course . Probably not, some pilots are saying. I just do not believe that this could be a nefarious event. I see a professional flight crew that tried to handle the situation. Reporter theres a simpler explanation that can account for what happened. A fire perhaps caused by an electrical problem and the pilots put on their oxygen masks, turning the plane towards the closest airport to land safely. The objective is to get yourself on the ground as quickly and as safely as possible. Reporter the plane turns west but smoke soon fills the cockpit overwhelms the cockpit and shorts out the planes communications system. With the pilots in kpas stated or worse, it flies past any airports and eventually runs out of fuel and crashes somewhere in the indian ocean. Swiss air 111. Heavy is declaring pan pan pan. We have smoke in the cockpit. Reporter like the 1998 flight of swiss air 111. I think its a very plausible idea. Reporter our thanks to athena jones for that report. There are problems with the smokefilled cockpit. There was to distressed call from the cockpit crew. Now for a little more on some of the passengers. We know there were three americans on board. We have heard a bit about philip 50, a 50yearold texas man and father of two. Who are the other two americans . Nicole mmang is four and anothe is 2. Its unclear who these little girls were traveling with. Weve tried to find out more but weve been told without waivers from the families, theres nothing they can tell us about them except they are among the 239 missing. A horribly tragic story. When we come back, a known al qaeda terrorist says he knew of a plot to h