Page 19 - Flight 447 News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> but that only works if the transponder is turned on. >> sid spent 35 years in air traffic control for the faa and four years in the air force, guiding flights under fire in vietnam. he says without the plane's transponder, aircraft traffic control is almost blind. >> this is what a flight looks like with the transponder on? >> correct. >> when the transponder is on, a data tag is very obvious. the pilot can use it to report an emergency. >> the letters hijk mean hijack. >> so without saying a word, the pilot can tell you he's been hijacked. >> that's correct. >> but the transponder has to b...

Time, obviously remains of the essence, not only for the families, but there's a limited window in how long the locator beacons work on the plane. in the event of a catastrophe like this, they have a month's window, while those beacons continue to ping. after that, the job becomes considerably, as you'd imagine, harder. >> and if you learn anything from the air france flight which crashed in 2009, flight 447, finding the debris is really just the first initial step, the first step in what could be a very long process. >> absolutely. piecing it together, and just finding the debris, john, this ...

Thigh need eyes on. that's why ships are going there. they have to get close up to that debris, they have to really investigate it to see and make that firm link, that yes, this is flight 370. >> thank you very much. just outside perth where the australians have based their operations to find this debris. the best lead they have right now, everyone waiting to find out if this is debris from flight 370 and that long wait for the relatives of malaiysia airlines flight 370 has been tearing away at all of those who are gathered in hotels around the world in malaysia and china. tensions in kuala lu...

What they are seeing on the southern ark is a straight line that makes a lot more sense to them than if the plane was not. >> we just don't know. thank you so much. coming up, missing fishermen say they saw the plane. we took a boat out and they spotted flight 370. also ahead, the families of those missing on the plane are demanding answers. could an independent investigation help find this plane? that's next.

Be if this plane crashed. >> hopefully that highly specialized plane is a good sign. we watch and wait. tom forman, thank you for that. coming up next, we are answering your questions live about the missing flight. a lot of people have been tweeting me. my twitter is nonstop here. you are asking all the great questions thinking of all kinds of things. use hash tag 370 qs. we are posing your questions to an expert. five things we are learning about the pilot of the flight through his social media accounts. what we learned, coming up. how we looking here, charlie? all sectors are looking great. ...