Well have a reality check on that. Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room. We begin with dramatic new information leading to more conflicting possibilities about what might have happened to Malaysian Air flight 370. A full week since that jet with 239 people on board simply disappeared. Here are the latest developments. U. S. Officials say the plane apparently crashed in the indian ocean with classified analysis showing it may have taken one of two different paths. The u. S. Warship is joining the growing search effort there. U. S. Officials say investigators are looking into concerns that lithium batteries carried in the cargo hold could have played a role in the airliners disappearance. A catastrophic fire caused by fires wouldnt explain the signal that the plane flew for hours after it was lost. Flight 370 was apparently in tact for five hours. Reuters cite sources saying that the plane deliberately was flown far off course using recognized waypoints. Our correspondents are standing by. Lets go to the pentagon. Barbara starr has brandnew information. What are you learning . Cnn has learned that theres a new classified analysis that the malaysians and ntsb, faa and u. S. Military intelligence officials all joining forces looking at every scrap of information. All of the satellite data, the pings off the airplane that we looked at, radar hits, everything they have and they have come up with this following analysis. They now believe that it is most likely when the plane crossed back over the Malay Peninsula and flew to the west towards the indian ocean, the calculation it took one of two turns, that it flew either into the northwest into the bay of bengal off of india or it flew essentially to the southeast, further south towards the island chains down in the far indian ocean. These are hundreds of you miles now being searched but the critical thing, wolf, this now begins to narrow the search into specific areas. None of this is for certain. This is an analysis that they have done, based on the data that they have collected, based on what they know, what those pings were, how far the plane may have flown in those hours and what they can discern from all of the satellite and radar data. So now the indian, navy, and some u. S. Airplanes are searching that northern box, if you will, in the bay of bengal. The military is taking a substantial role in looking for the plane as well as the uds and down further south as you see in that map, the u. S. S. Kidd is also looking and scouring the sea surface and the air for any sign of debris field. Wolf . Barbara, why two directions, one north and one south . Why did they come this intelligence analysis come with two different end points, if you will . We dont have perfect knowledge of that. We dont have let us be very clear all of the information that the government of the United States and government of malaysia has. But our understanding, from people weve spoken to, is this is based when they put all that data together. What we now know, for example, is that the satellite picked up some of those pings. They were able to analyze location information. The radar gave them location information. The pings went on for about five hours, which tells them how long the plane might have been flying in some sort of relatively Stable Flight situation because, again, remember, weve also been told that the emergency beacon system that would have indicated a crash, an impact into the ocean or on land perhaps, that never went off. So this plane was in some sort of flight condition, by all accounts, up to five hours and that also has contributed to this very hightechnical cue lags that is now being made. But again, wolf, it is a calculation. They will look everywhere they feel they need to. And you quote these sources, barbara, as saying that it likely crashed in the indian ocean. Does that mean they dont believe its possible it could have either crashed on land or landed on land . You know, this is such a tough question to answer as the days have gone on i think all of us shall everybody looking at this situation acknowledges that all options, if you will, remain open. Weve talked to u. S. Officials who say they are not ruling anything out but, you know, they do believe that logic would dictate at this point if a plane crashed or landed anywhere on land, such a large aircraft, so many people, in todays world of modern technology, it would have been found. Its not to say that they are totally ruling it out and i have to tell you, wolf, along with the big question of what happened to the plane, again, not ruling anything out. They dont believe at this point theres any indication of terrorism but the u. S. Intelligence community is looking at every single scenario, even before they know what happened to try to get any clue, does it match any pattern of any logical explanation. So far, they cant come up with anything. Barbara starr at the pentagon, thank you. Lets take a closer look at the lithium battery in the cargo hold. They can be very volatile and theyve been blamed for krachs crashes in the past. What are you looking at, pamela . They are looking at whether the lithium batteries may and i stress, may have been a factor in the planes disappearance. This is based on cargo information provided to officials and the fact that lithium batteries have sparked plane fires in the past. Lets take a look here. This is a lithium battery. This is what you see. This is coming from a laptop. Airplanes ban passengers from putting lithium batteries into checked baggage. In fact, you may recognize this tag here. At the very bottom theres a tag that says dangerous goods, including spare lithium batteries are prohibited. Heres why. Lithium batteries are more prone to causing fires in other types of batteries. Batteries that are not involved in an initial fire may ignite and propagate, thus creating a risk of a catastrophic event. Its also believed that lithium batteries may have caused a ups plane crash back in 2010 and as we mentioned, airlines banned passengers from bringing spare lithium batteries on board. This would make the scenario that the plane flew for five hours highly unlikely. According to a Law Enforcement official i spoke with today, investigators are also keenly aware of other theories that have caused plane crashes in the past, like the twa 800 fuel tank spark such as what happened with the egypt air flight and another analogy, stress on the frame and oxygen generators like what happened in a florida plane crash back in 1996. These are all theories investigators are looking into, wolf. Were a week into this and still no answers. At this point its really just speculation. There are many unknowns than knowns. They certainly are. Pamela brown with that report, thanks very much. Lets bring in the former fbi assistant director tom fuentes. U. S. And malaysian officials coordinating and thinking that the plane went to the northern part of the indian ocean or the southern part of the indian ocean and likely crashed. What do you make of that . Wolf, im highly skeptical. Either they have precise information and satellites and the pings and all of that helped them know which direction the plane went. I dont know how they can say it was going west and either did go north or south or kept going west. This reminds me of chasing fugitives in the fbi and they tell you, they either went that way or that way. It also doesnt tell us whether or not someone commandeered that plane after the transponders were shut down or before the transponders were shut down or whether it was a catastrophic failure. Its certainly to me im not the aviation expert that you had on earlier but its funny that the plane can take zigs and zags and go north and south. They have more turns than an air show. Even if you believe it, it flew for four or five hours after losing control well losing communications with air Traffic Controllers on the ground, you have to wonder, was it actually going in a specific direction towards some location . Was it just randomly on auto pilot flying someplace . What was going on . We have no clue. No, we have to clue. And it would eliminate the theory that a battery caught fire and exploded or some other oxygen tank or something caught fire because the plane, all of the alarms would go off, the fire suppress sors would be goi off and they would be trying to get it to the nearest airport, whether its a vietnam airport or Malaysian Airport. They would not be flying halfway around the indian ocean and there was a fire. So youre still working under the assumption that there was a person or persons that caused this, not a mechanical failure . Even there, if the batteries went off, if there was a fire and if the warnings didnt go back to the kuala lumpur officials, then we need to be having debris in the ocean where they first looked day one because that would be right on the flight path, right at the time the transponders went off. If all of that correspondented, that was the most intense search. Wheres the debris . Because if lithium batteries were the cause of this disaster, how could the plane fly for four or five hours after an explosion of lithium batteries. Exactly. Up next, the search efforts are being refocused after indicating the airliner crashed somewhere in the indian ocean along one of two likely flight paths. A u. S. Navy commander aboard a ship in the region is standing by to discuss. Iwe dont back down. We only know one direction up so were up early. Up late. Thinking up gamechanging ideas, like this dozens of tax free zones across new york state. Move here. Expand here. Or start a new business here. And pay no taxes for 10 years. With new jobs, new opportunities and a new tax free plan. Theres only one way for your business to go. Up. Find out if your business can qualify at startupny. Com afghanistan, in 2009. Orbiting the moon in 1971. [ male announcer ] once its earned, usaa Auto Insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. 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We just posted a very important report, date line Malaysia Flight 370 says experienced significant changes in altitude after it lost contact with Ground Control and altered its course more than once as if still under the command of a pilot, this according to american officials and others familiar with the investigation. The New York Times ads that radar signals recorded by the malaysian military appear to show the missing airliner climbing to 45,000 feet above the approved altitude for a boeing 777 soon after it disappeared from radar and made a sharp turn to the west, according to a preliminary assessment by a person familiar with the data. The radar tracked, which the malaysian government has not released but has provided to the United States and china then shows the plane descending unevenly to an altitude of 23,000 feet below normal cruising levels as it approached the densely populated island of one of the countrys largest. There the plane turned from the southwest and climbed to a higher altitude and flew northwest over the strait of malacca towards the indian ocean. Tom foreman, you heard this report as i read it to our viewers in the United States and around the world. What do you make of this new development. The New York Times is quoting their sources. Wolf, my concern with this is the cooperation with the malaysian authorities. You know, weve had people criticizing them all week, that they werent sharing enough information, they werent cooperating and making the Data Available to the u. S. Experts. Now suddenly we have media report after media report citing information from people close to the investigation. Whether its true or not true, just citing that is going to create an enormous political problem for the ntsb and faa people on the ground in kuala lumpur because their colleagues are going to be saying, is this what we get for sharing with you, suddenly its on the New York Times or on cnn . Thats an important point you make. But if in fact its true, the plane was shifting altitude going up to 45,000, going down to 23,000 and then going back up. It would indicate someone was in command of that aircraft. It was not on auto pilot or Something Like that. Someone was in charge. Hold on for a moment because joining us on the phone now is u. S. Navy commander William Marks with the u. S. Navy seventh fleet aboard the uss blue ridge. Your ships are moving into the indian ocean. I assume the uss kidd is there now. How is the search going . Good morning. Were starting out our day on saturday morning here in the pacific, about 5 00 in the morning here. So we do have uss kidd that moved into the northwest part of the strait of malacca. Last night it moved a little west. Now its about as far west as you can go into the entrance to the strait of malacca or a little bit northwest. So you have the uss kidd from my perspective here, as you look west and you transition west to the indian ocean, ships alone are really not quite much of a solution as they were in the gulf of thailand just because of the ex pans of the water. So you have to look at what other assets you have. The kidd has helicopters but those patrol aircraft in one flight may fly about an ninehour chunk at a time. They will cover 10, 11 square miles. When you look at it, thats going to be the best asset. Do you have enough aircraft in the region together with other international partners, specifically the indian air force, to undertake this type of a search in the northern and southern part of the indian ocean . The International Effort is growing. At last county had 57 ships, about 40 or so aircraft and thats from 13 countries. So the International Effort is growing. However, so has the search area. So as we look upon our day here, were looking at the number of assets we have and the scope of this area and we just have to take it little by little. Thats the best you can do out here. Is your search focusing in on the northern part of the indian ocean, the bay of bengal, for example, that area or further to the south hundreds of miles to the south near christmas island, as its called . Today were looking essentially west of kuala lumpur. So if youre there, throw a line due west and go from there. That was the last search area. For today im going to have to look this morning but it will probably be pretty close to that. Yesterday you told us here in the situation room you basically have gone from searching a chess board to now searching a football field. Do you want to revise or amend those comments or give us some up to date clarification . Well, i think thats accurate. Its a challenge. We are very closely watching the crews and the equipment. Were watching how much our people can go out. I think thats accurate. There are more questions and its to a point now where it is almost daybyday and the information changes. So very challenging situation. One final question, commander, before i let you go. Youve spoken about how emotionally challenging this is for the men and women of the United States navy, the marine corps who are involved in this search right now and the grief counselors may be necessary. Whats the latest on that front . Weve brought them out here in case the personnel in case during this search the people on board would have been found on the surface of the water. The bodies or fragments of the bodies and thats thats what those counselors are for. From our experience, when you have to recover the remains of bodies, that is extremely emotionally taxing and so we have a very good support system for that and thats what we are watching out for. Well, our best wishes to you, commander, and all of the men and women of the United States navy, the marine course, all of the u. S. Military personnel and members of the coast guard and others who are involved in this extraordinary search. Well check back with you. Of course, commander William Marks of the u. S. Navys seventh fleet aboard the uss blue ridge. The airliner may have crashed somewhere in the indian ocean. But why . Scrutiny is being directed at the pilots. Were taking a closer look at these two men. Plus, investigators still havent ruled out the possibility that the plane may have actually landed in a revote island chain. Were going to have a reality check on that as well. Stay with us. Youre in the situation room. If you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, like me, and youre talking to your rheumatologist about a biologic. This is humira. This is humira helping to relieve my pain. This is humira helping me lay the groundwork. 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