Page 15 - Value Jet News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Families have been given false hope. >> you know, and that's the sad thing, and as we've talked on this air for better than three weeks, you know, credible, it's the words that these folks are using, credible leads, which raises that optimism and hope, only to be let down. and there has to be a reality check, and with, you know, all the talking heads and all of the folks that are providing information, you have to use words cautiously. when i was working doing value jet and a variety of other accidents, you have to pick your words carefully, because the families are hanging on every word, and ...

Out a bomb, an explosion on board? someone tweeted me an interesting point about the fire on board. if there had been a fire, how could a plane that has a fire ripping through it carry on flying for hours on end? it doesn't seem feasible. >> these airplanes are made to withstand a lot. look at the aloha accident. that time flew for plenty of time. >> so it could have a fire on board for six hours? >> in that case, it could. that's why smoke is more likely than fire. >> is a bomb ruled out at this stage, and if so, why? >> a bomb of any size that would take that aircraft down is out of the ques...

Comparing passports to the interpol database, the capability for this plane to transmit its position of altitude, that's pretty simple. it can be done with what is already on the airplane. just modified so that it cannot be disabled. >> turned off. that's an issue that's come up in a number of conversations. i've been told that the reason pilots are able to turn the transponder off is because if they have an issue like a short circuit, they need to have the ability to turn things off. so how do you make it unturn offable but still be safe for the pilot and the crew? >> you're right. since the ...

Flight 800 that crashed off long island, congress passed a law called family air disaster where it let the ntsb completely relate to families in such a different way from day one the malaysians, maybe they are not used to running an investigation. the families have been put back and forth with theory after theory and false hope after false hope. in this country it's done quite differently. >> how is it done this this country in terms of the ntsb reaching out to families immediately? >> after pan-am 103, they started to get organized and after the value jet in '96 and twa 800 in july of 1996, t...

That's very important, he did not clarify how big it was. these type of batteries have been implicated in other incidents. they are flammable. tonight cnn's martin savidge is back in a flight simulator along with mitchell cosado. i don't think you guys have ever left the simulator frankly. this is one aspect investigators are looking at, the possibility of a fire on board. there were these potentially flammable lithium batteries. we don't know how many. could a fire have started in the cargo hold and then overtaken the cockpit? >> the answer to that is most definitely it could have happened. w...