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You don't seem convinced to me? >> i'm not 100% convinced because of the assumptions we've had to make. we're over 17 days into this investigation and we have nothing. so this is the only lead we have. >> there's one change in the time line today that kind of concerned me. we were always saying the route was changed, in other words, the flight path was changed inside the cockpit, meaning it had to be done manually by the pilots, we were told that was done before they said good night. now they're says, no, no, no, that was after. now they're going back to before. it keeps changing. how importan...

I thought, there's a fact here somewhere. when i find it, i'll let you know. >> and we can't change the past. it's clear that the design of the black box must change. do you agree, mike? >> well, there are lots of lessons that must occur. the pilot linking data communication system. through the acars, they can talk to air traffic control. midatlantic, they would have to use a radio called hf. now they can talk. and i think you'll see expediting technology in terms

Gets information straight from the engines as well. it doesn't have to go through the acars to get there. >> what does that tell you in layman's terms? >> if the engines quit from lack of fuel, whatever it is, it would have sent a signal to satcom and said let's connect. >> bill nye, let me come to you. you worked at boeing. you know about the black boxes. what do you think of where we are now three weeks nearly into this? >> well, what i'd like to say is, i don't think it's any one thing. i think that it's going to be a series of problems that compounded. and it sounds, listening to these exp...

>> it's really a game changer. i really believe thought is. here ease what i think might have happened there, piers. the satcom boxes are way in the back of the aircraft, in the back and upper compartment right below the satcom antenna. they've been receiving these pings from that satcom antenna. a long way in the front is what the acars is and that's stopped gives us information. it's all gathered and sends information from the aircraft. what i suspect happened at this point, satcom is designed that when something changes, when there's an emergency signal of any kind it starts to try to conne...

The acars was normal. i'm not convinced that the transponders were turned off. i think it's possible they just didn't receive the request to send the information that far away from the radar station. so let's take that off the table for just a second. now the aircraft drops to 12,000 feet and makes a turn. the only airport i can see it may have been attempting to get to which would make sense is paneng. a maintenance base for malaysia air. a place where if i had a problem with an aircraft that's where i would head. >> let me ask you again a layman question. if that is what they were doing, why...