Page 3 - Hms Echo News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Have we learned, is there silt? is it mountainous? is it flat? what do we know about this area? >> well, i think this is an area that is new to man. we obviously have a great asset in the oceanographic vessel, "hms echo." that's the start of the oceanographic that can assist in the mapping of the bottom there. but on the symmetry that i've seen, it's not sharply mountainous or anything. it's more flat and almost rolling but we understand from other work that was done some years ago that that part of the indian ocean has a lot of silt on the bottom. and if we have silt on the bottom, that can b...

Also, "hms echo" is helping the "ocean shield." he said the air and surface search will be concluded in the next couple of days or so. i think he said the next two days and that they would have to consult with everyone else involved to figure out how to proceed. did i hear that correctly, michael holmes? >> yeah, you did, don. he said wreckage needs to be seen before there's any confirmation of the resting place. you know, those ships -- what you have is that smaller what he called a manageable area where the "ocean shield" and "hms echo" are located. they are doing the sonar work and the rest...

This is day 39 as a matter of fact. and still no sign of missing flight 370. and again, a news conference about to begin at the top of the hour. my guest joins me now here on cnn. and we're talking about what to expect at that news conference. and really what to expect in the next phase of this search. and i want to go back to jeffrey thomas in perth where they're holding that press conference. so just word of a prez conference, you also got word that nothing had been heard, nothing of the pingers had been heard, no acoustic event or audio event in days. we don't know what he's going to say. >...

With the cockpit voice recorder, you'll get an even clearer picture of what happened. why did this happen. >> jeffrey in perth now. it's good to have you here. do you know what we can expect to hear from this news conference? perth 1234? >> don, look, we haven't had any word whatsoever. we've had the first announcement that there's been no acoustic events in the last 24 hours. and about an hour or so later, we got advice that angus houston is going to address the media at 12:00, which is about just a bit over an hour or so to go. and so there has been no indication whatsoever even off record a...

This is a very forbidding environment. it's cold. just above freezing. it's completely dark. and we really don't know much about the ocean floor here. you might say why not just drop that robotic sonar imaging device there and let it ride around and start mapping all of this? if you want the best performance out of something like this, you'd like to get it as close to the right distance from the floor as possible. this is right at the range of its functioning level here, 2.5 miles down. they have to make sure they have a better idea before they turn it loose. what that means is up oen the surf...