President of the United States and Vladimir Putin doesnt seem to care one bit. Hes doubled the number of troops near the border. Is russia ready to start a fullblown war . Welcome to the lead. Im jim sciutto filling in for jake tapper. New satellite images are driving the search for flight 370, which disappeared 21 days ago now without a trace with 239 people on board. A japanese satellite has the most recent pictures taken yesterday, which appear to show about ten objects floating in the southern indian ocean. The biggest one looks rectangular, about 13 feet by 26 feet. And thailand providing another fresh lead with its own satellite images. These were taken on monday and show a possible 300 objects on the surface of the water. They range from size 5 feet to 60 feet. Any one of them could be a piece of the plane. If you plot these on the map, you can see them concentrated in a general area far off the coast of australia but confirming them has proven difficult, like Everything Else in this search. With some luck, well get planes in the air soon. Air crews were beaten up by the turbulence. Some ships did remain out there, though, to keep the search going. More satellite images but not a lot more answers. Lets bring in our expert panel for more. We have captain tim taylor, president of tiburon subsea services. We also have miles obrien. Thank you for coming on, miles. I want to begin with you because this is something that our viewers are struggling with. Every day there are new satellite images that shows specks that could be debris but every day they are in roughly the same area. As you begin to piece these pictures together, is it reasonable to conclude that were beginning to see a debris field here, that there is more evidence of a debris field . Laypersons response, yes. There are three things to think about here. The location, the sheer numbers and similarity. I assume a trash pile may have different shades and i dont see that. Finally, and what i see are shapes, maybe im trying to see it, are aerodynamic pieces that could be the fuselage or horizontal stabilizer. So i think this is very promising. Its one key thing, shape. Tim, as you know, theyve had to suspend the closeup searches. They look from miles above the sky from sat it look aellite and the planes in to get a closer look and theyve had a difficult time with the weather. Can you explain the difficulties of spotting it and then getting a ship to find the debris. We are fighting mother nature. And were not only fighting mother nature, were fighting mother nature. She has a home field advantage, its late in the Fourth Quarter and shes killing us. Weve got to come back. Weve got to find these things. But what youre doing with these satellites, youre looking at a satellite image and then youre not being able to put a ship on location until days later and then, then youre not able to put a recovery youre not even finding the stuff. You are chasing it. Every day is a delayed image. Weather is knocking you down. It is almost an Impossible Task and the target is moving. The target is moving every day and youve got the weather, as you mentioned, were told that the next flights might not be up until as far from now until sunday. Thats another three days away. That could move a lot of miles. And in different directions. The data the data links are its a positive thing that they are getting multiple positive hits from different satellites and countries. They may be able to identify the same pieces of wreckage and follow them over time. As it gets longer and longer and longer and dispersed farther and farther, the odds go exponentially if it is the wreckage to where it went in the water. Its incredible. As you look at the pictures, you imagine these neat little arrows but in fact its like a thousand washing machines. Miles, there was a great interview in the a. P. That talked to the spotters and looking at the challenge of the ees glazing over, 30, 60 minutes staring at the same ocean. And some of the seaweed apparently in this part of the ocean is orange and they look for orange objects and theyve had a lot of false alarms. Youve been looking with viewers. Tell us what a challenge it is to pick this stuff up. Heres a little footage from september 2011. Flew a Civil Air Patrol mission one day and got a keen appreciation for the challenges. The nevada desert is like the ocean. Theres a lot of junk left over from mining days and its interesting how your eyes will play tricks on you and make you think youre seeing a plane when its an old wheelbarrow from a mine. The key is, what the Civil Air Patrol does, you have to do it in incremental shifts. I know these crew rotate people through but its very fatiguing and, of course, human nature is, you want to find something. They are also talking about tricks that they use, like moving your eyes so they dont get glazed over. Theres a certain pattern that youre supposed to do and i wasnt very good at it. These guys are professionals and they are on land and that was in nevada, a piece of nevada. It took them two years. And it was found really kind of a hiker going through the woods found i. D. Cards that had been taken away by an animal. So you can imagine how that ended up. But the truth is, that search was for about a month and did not yield anything. It was a hiker. Yeah, sometimes luck just plays a part. Weather is going to deteriorate over the next several days. That must make it harder, i imagine, to use model forecast to figure out where those currents are bringing all this debris. How much of a challenge is that . Days, weeks . What does this push how far does this push the search out . Its getting almost to the point of impossibility. Even the best mathematicians, unless they get so many clues and recover so much, it looks like its going to be so minimal that its still not enough to plug it back, especially since its been three weeks. Miles just said, they lost a plane on land and they couldnt find it. Okay. This is in the middle of the ocean in the most remote part of the world that nobody goes. So its daunting. And then the land is not moving like the ocean is, constantly moving targets. Its a sobering thought but unfortunately, thats reality. Thank you, miles obrien, tim taylor for joining us. Coming up, accusations against the pilot of flight 370. But is there any evidence . What the ceo is saying about the pilot . Plus, conditions over the indian ocean deteriorate. Will the search be able to resume in a couple of hours . Stay with us. Well have an update. Work with equity experts. Who work with regional experts. Who work with Portfolio Management experts, thats when expertise happens. Mfs. Because there is no expertise without collaboration. Mfs. Beautiful day in baltimore where most people probably know that geico could save them money on car insurance, right . You see the thing is geico, well, could help them save on boat insurance too. Hey okay. Im ready to come in now. Hello . Im trying my best. Seriously, im. Im serious. Request to come ashore. Geico. Saving people money on more than just car insurance. Welcome back to the lead and more now on our world lead. We still dont have any concrete proof flight 370 even crashed into the indian ocean but investigators say if it did crash, we cannot rule out the possibility that it was a deliberate act. They are not only interviewing the pilot and copilots family members and friends, but closely scrutinizing their actions in the days leading up to the flight. Pamela brown is joining us with more. Are they finding anything worrisome as they do this . So far, no. But were still early on in the investigations. Sources that ive been speaking with say that investigators havent found anything that would support or rule out the idea that either pilot planned to take down that plane. Their family members are breaking their silence for the first time. With few clues to work off of, sources say examining the two men in the cockpit is still a top priority. But those who knew them best are speaking out in their defense. In an interview with jim changes see, the former ceo of Malaysia Airlines said that he knew zaharie shah well. Hes an excellent pilot. I think they are going the wrong way, pointing a finger at him. And the current ceo of Malaysia Airlines supported fariq ab hamid. And ahmad seth defended his father on tuesday night saying he understands his father better than those criticizing him. Ive Read Everything online but ive avoided the speculation. I know my father better. Investigators havent yet found any evidence to suggest a premeditated act by either pilot. The u. S. Official tells cnn that a preliminary mary review of the captain simulator and both computers have not yielded a smoking gun so far. The captain did not leave a suicide note, a source of Malaysia Airlines tells cnn. And captain shah seen here going through Airport Security was a respected pilot who had been with Malaysia Airlines since 1981, flying more than 18,000 hours. The 53yearold was married with three grown children. Captain shahs daughter was a student studying in melbourne, australia. The family home was here in a gated community. But his wife routinely stayed somewhere else when he was flying. Shah was a spublic supporter of pro democracy rallies and in his free time he posted videos like this one online. Showing him in front of his home flight simulator, talking not about his job but about his interests in Home Improvement projects. Less is known about shahs copilot, fariq hamid. He was engaged to his high school sweetheart. He was on his first flight in the cockpit unsupervised on the jumbo jet. And the fbi is expected to hand over analysis of the hard drive soon, evidence that is pulled from it could provide clues or leads for officials to follow up on and that could end up being important in this investigation. But as of now, we are reiterating, no smoking gun has been found. These pilots are victims until proven otherwise. Jim . Do we have Unrealistic Expectations about how quickly they would come to some working theory here . This could be a long plotting and slow investigation, right . Right. From an investigative standpoint, the people that ive spoken to say this is still very early on. Three weeks in were all looking for answers but if you think about it, the first week they are trying to wrap their heads around what happened, there was focus on a mechanical failure. And of course this investigation keeps going back to the pilots because theres nothing else to explain the planes disappearance. We may have to dig down and wait a long time. Be prepared for that. Thanks very much, pamela brown. Where does this investigation go at this point . Joining me now is former fbi and cia official phil mudd. We want answers and certainly more importantly regulators and officials want answers and the families want answers. But realistically, should we be bearing down and expect this to take weeks or months before we have any answers . You think about the avenues that the investigators have to pursue, ground crew, crew on the plane, the guys in the cockpit, passengers on the plane and then expand that out. Associates family that might have had contact with them a couple of weeks ago. I dont think the investigators are either accusing or letting him off the hook. This is just the way the investigation is going to unroll in a situation that is as complicated as this. Do you think we should prepare ourselves for the possibility, that in light of all of the mysteries around it, in light that the biggest piece of evidence is sitting in the bottom of the southern indian ocean in very difficult conditions, should we prepare ourselves that you never get a hard answer to what happened here and why . I think theres a possibility of that. Look, if we have a crime, we dont have the criminals or the crime scene. I was listening to the conversation about the expansive indian ocean and this is going for a needle in a haystack. I agree its early but we dont have a shred from email, instant messages, friends, family, anything in terms of what this fellow searched for on google. We dont have anything in the ocean that suggests to me we found a plane. If we think were going to get quick answers, i think were going to be disaint ppointed. Lets talk about that. To our knowledge, at least at this point, they have not turned up anything hard on motive and yet malaysian officials have said a number of times that they are leading to the idea that this was a deliberate act. In your experience, and youve covered a lot of investigations like this, involved in them and led them, how deliberate would it be to have a clear act of a motive or indication of a motive . I think that would be a bit surprising, especially in the 21st century. Think of yourself, myself, think of not obanly the conversationse have with friends and associates, the lead that you leave. If there was a conspiracy that was related to the conspiracy, did he never send an email or text message . To me this is hard to believe in the 21st century. As a career analyst, ive seen analysts make one consistent problem over time and that is confusing the difference between what we know and what we think. Im not persuaded at this point that we know it was not a catastrophe that had to do with happened with the electrical system. Were running to the pilots because we dont have any other answers. You described this protracted process without answers, even the possibility of no answers. How long does the fbi and ntsb, other u. S. Organizations involved in this investigation, how long do they invest those resources, that money, that manpower before they give up or at least take a back seat and pull back until something new is discovered . There will, unless this is a resolved, always be an investigator ten years, 20 years, 30 years down the road looking at this problem. You remember, we looked at the fbi case that Many Americans have forgotten about, Whitey Bulger who was only found in california for years after we lost. The Abortion Clinic killer stuck in the mountains in north carolina. Youve got to remember one thing, there are americans dead here. This is potentially a crime scene. The investigators, the agents, analysts will not let this bone go until theres an answer. Well, thats a relief to hear. Im sure its a relief for the families as well. Thanks very much to phil mudd. Coming up next, satellites continue to find possible debris in the southern indian ocean. Do they need a new strategy . And waves as tall as office buildings. What are they going to face as the search resumes in a few hours from now. Your eyes depend on a unique set of nutrients. [ male announcer ] thats why theres ocuvite. Ocuvite helps replenish key eye nutrients. Ocuvite has a unique formula thats just not found in any leading multivitamin. Help protect your eye health with ocuvite. Humans. Even when we cross our ts and dot our is, we still run into problems. Namely, other humans. Which is why, at Liberty Mutual insurance, auto policies come with new car replacement and accident forgiveness if you qualify. See what else comes standard at libertymutual. Com. Liberty mutual insurance. Responsibility. Whats your policy . I like it. Must see. I found a great new listing. Little busy here. I love this neighborhood. Nice. Uh huh. Its the agent. They accepted. Shut up [ laughs ] they accepted. Owww. [ male announcer ] that moment when it all comes together. Thats your moment of trulia. Welcome back to the lead. And continuing with our world lead. Its one thing to have pictures from space of potential objects, quite another to spot them with a naked eye and much closer up. So far, searchers have not found a single scrap from the plane. Conditions are so rough, planes could be right on top of the debris and miss it. Reporter the search for flight 370 is concentrated about 1500 miles off australias west coast. Five countries photographed floating objects that could be linked to the missing plane. Australian satellites detected two. Then the chinese spotted this. The french photographed 122 objects. Thailand satellite spotted 300 and wednesday the japanese detected 10. But search crews eyeballing the indian ocean have not found a sign of flight 370 or any floating objects believed to match those captured on satellite. Its not perfect. Its a combination of the human eye and service conditions. Reporter bottom line, waves as high as twostory buildings is the best option but not a perfect one. Assume 100 coverage, means youre visibly looking at every square inch of the search area. The best we normally get on a longterm average is about 78 probability of detection. Reporter and thats in calm water. Waldoch predicts this makes it only about 50 . Big waves also make it hard for planes and ships to detect objects on their radar. The wreckage that were looking for is so close to the water line that our radar would not be able to pick it up. So we are very reliant on lookouts, binoculars. Reporter with weather grounding searchers, twice as many ships are needed. Youve still got to go out and look. One of the things that you start believing in, if you do this enough, is luck. Reporter he says the best bet for crews, focus on finding the larger debris field. Its easier for the human eye to detect. Rene marsh, cnn, washington. Searchers are anxious to spot anything in the debris fields. It takes four hours, though, just to get from the base of operations in perth, australia. They had to turn back yesterday because of horrendous conditions on site. Were talking about zero visibility and severe turbulence. I want to bring in our chief meteorologist chad myers. Hes in the cnn Weather Center. Chad, is it going to get any better . Are they going to be able to look for these areas again . The weather is better today. Yesterday it looked like they were searching for a bar of ivory soap in a bubble bath. The entire ocean was foam. Waves 20 to 30 feet high. It causes the surface to turn white. Think about being looking for Something White in the ocean when the ocean was already white. They couldnt get any elevation as well, no sense of flying above the cloud when youre looking for something on the surface of the ocean. If anything stops the search today, it will be the bumps through here. Remember, these are turbo props. These are not jets flying at 45,000 feet. They are flying at 15, 20,000 feet to get to the much better weather. Because theres a big hole in our happen here, that means theres very little wind for the next two days. So the seas will calm down. It takes a while