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Kind of a shocking story, straight ahead. ♪ [ whispering ]

Acars. richard quest is an anchor and aviation correspondent for cnn. >> think of acars as a giant smartphone that will send out huge amounts of information via satellite or by radio transmission. >> then at 1:19 a.m., a standard handoff with air traffic control as the plane leaves malaysian airspace and enters vietnamese airspace. >> the controller here in malaysia tells him to speak to ho chi minh. and he says good night, malaysian 370, something i would do. >> there was no indication that anything had gone wrong. >> david soucie is a former safety inspector for the faa. >> so for the first ...

>> as an investigator looking at this, what would the determination be, at least at this point, as to what is happening? >> at this point, i've got two different paths. one is that that aircraft was taken over and that the systems were intentionally shut down. the other side would be that there was a singular failure at a common location, and that singular mechanical failure would have done exactly the same thing. at this point in the investigation, there's no evidence one way or the other. >> but there would be piles of evidence if acars hadn't stopped transmitting. >> you'd know the air cond...

Investigation, there's no evidence one way or the other. >> but there would be piles of evidence if acars hadn't stopped transmitting. >> you'd know the air condition of the engines, the route it was taking, the altitudes it was taking. we would know exactly the state of that aircraft. >> just the kind of information someone taking over a plane wouldn't want anyone to know. >> if you were doing something nefarious, then switching off acars would be a crucial part of making the plane go dark. >> the plane was dark and silent. there was still no check-in with vietnam air traffic call, a call for...

Malaysia flight 370 vanishes into thin air. there's been silence from the cockpit. and by 1:37 a.m., a second flight communications system, acars, isn't working either. >> acars was either switched off, or it failed. we don't know which because whatever did happen, this is the crucial moment. we pretty much know that all the comms are disabled, switched off, broken, blown up. >> as an investigator looking at this, what would the determination be, at least at this point, as to what is happening? >> at this point, i've got two different paths. one is that that aircraft was taken over and that th...