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Search. what can you tell us now? how many planes are up? are they finding anything? >> reporter: nearly all of the planes are up. the first of which may start to approach this area right now, just a short time ago the u.s. navy's p-8, poseidon plane, took off, joining the search today. so what they're doing is out of the ten expected to be taking part in the search, they're going to actually split the search into two different regions. want to try to cover as much ground as possible, there ray number of governments involved in this today. the united states, new zealand, australia, also joinin...

So the p-8 is the closest at the moment. other planes are going in afterwards, but they try and stagger it so they get as many daylight hours as they can actually over that zone. >> all right. andrew stevens for us, thank you. fascinating report, perhaps some hope for the families. >> it's frustrating watching these developments disappear and then new developments. this morning, investigators have new leads in the disappearance of that flight. word that the boeing 777 dropped as low as 12,000 feet before disappearing from radar. that's raising new questions about just what exactly happened ins...

Located, we are sending it down. this is sensitive equipment. it's towed behind at slow speeds on a commercial vessel, down to depths about -- it can listen down to about 20,000 feet, lynning for the ping coming up from the black box, which is going to be critical. >> another question for you, since we have you here, what can you tell us about today's search? >> right now, the p-8 and the p-3, are actually probably arrived on station right now. and are conducting the searches. but as of now, there's been no reports of any findings or anything from the debris field. >> christine, if the u.s. we...

Remoteness part of the southern indian ocean. it's an area where the weather changes quickly and violently. that's what these pilots and crews have been dealing with, deb, and it looks like they're going to have to deal with that for at least another 24 to 48 hours. what they need, obviously, are more ships in that area. there's only one ship in the area at the moment, an australian naval vessel. it is in the target zone. it is not near where the debris was reported. more naval vessels are heading there, particularly chinese naval vessels, plus a chinese icebreaker, would you believe, been div...

Controlled camera from the international space station to get images of any possible plane debris sites. as far as aircraft in the air, especially the lockheed-built p-3 reconnaissance planes, the united states, japan, china and new zealand have deployed the p-3s. the p-8, the sophisticated version, come courtesy of the united states. >> barbara starr joins us right now. barbara, give us a sense of this arsenal being deployed. >> well, you know, it's not just the equipment, but the number of countries that have come together in this very unexpected coalition. this is the size in the coalition ...