Transcripts For CNNW The Situation Room 20140408

Viewers in the United States and around the world. Im wolf blitzer, youre in the situation room. This hour, crews are scanning the sea for those elusive pings, but the air search is as critical as ever to solving the flight 370 mystery. Planes are getting ready to take off for a dramatically smaller search area, about onethird the size it was before. Officials are racing against the clock. Right now they are trying to close in on a potential crash site and find the jets black boxes. A new Zealand Air Force commander just told me a little while ago at least one area where a chinese ship heard a possible ping has now been ruled out. Our correspondents in the United States and around the world are covering every angle of the search and the investigation, along with our team of experts here in the situation room. Lets begin our coverage this hour with our aviation correspondent rene marsh. Renee . We know there have been about 133 missions, and Australian Authorities say they are just as intense today as they were on day one. Now youre about to hear for yourself the audio of the pinging sound search crews detected for a substantial amount of time. The problem is, theyve lost contact with it. Its the sound crews onboard the ocean shield are desperately trying to find again, the Australian Defense Department Released audio of the possible black box signal the towed pinger detected twice over the weekend. Despite a continuous effort to recapture it, still nothing. As the hours pass, we are our optimism is fading away ever so slightly. If it is flight 370s black boxes, finding it again is the only way to pinpoint its location. The ocean shield moves about two miles per hour, tracking back and forth around the clock. The towed pinger measures intensity, but not position, so multiple hits are crucial in triangulating a smaller search area. Until we stop the pinger search, we will not deploy the submersible. Is that clear . We will not deploy it, unless we find, unless we get another transmission. This is the submersible, bluefin 21, the underwater drone moves along at a painstakingly slow pace, mapping the ocean floor. The pinger manufacturer is analyzing the recording. Its actually at 33. 3 killlow hertz, lower than the standard 37. 5. A change possibly due to environmental factors. Theres a change with the pressure on the ocean floor, and the age of the particular batteries, the capacity can change, and you get changes in the transmission level. Meantime, they are guarding against noise interference, limiting the number of ships and aircraft near the ocean shield. 375 miles away, search crews havent given up hope on the other pinging sounds reported by the chinese. Two search areas, but so far neither has reacquired the sound they need. Well, australian Officials Say they will keep searching for that pinging sound until there is absolutely no doubt the pinger batteries have expired. That means roughly another ten to 12 days or so. At the same time, locating debris is still critical. Search crews have deployed data buoys to monitor water flow in hopes of locating that debris. Of course, that will help them trace back to that point possibly where the plane went into the water. All right, rene, stand by. Were going to get back to you. Lets go to the base of operations right now, the base of the operations for the search, our Senior International correspondent Matthew Chance is joining us now from perth, australia, with the very latest from there. What are you seeing, what are you hearing, matthew . Reporter well, wolf, its still very early in the morning, 6 00 a. M. , in fact, its before sunrise, as you can see, but over the course of the next hour or so, the sun is going to come up, the planes are going to resume their observation missions. They are still very much emphasizing the Aerial Search for any kind of indication, lead, or clue as to the whereabouts of this missing malaysian airliner. They carried out, they tell us, the search teams, 133 airborne Search Missions up until this point, and thats increasing, or at least maintaining the intensity over the coming days, because they are taking advantage of what they are describing as this last window of opportunity to try and spot some kind of lead that would give an indication during this period where they hope the battery life aboard the black boxes on the malaysian airliner could still potentially be detected. What the australian officials weve spoken to, what they are saying, they are throwing everything theyve got at this over the next few days at least to try and maximize this window of opportunity and see what they can find. At the moment, though, wolf, they found nothing, they havent managed to reacquire the signal that was detect by the australian vessel over the weekend, and thats of deep concern. We heard from the new zealand Wing Commander, whos in charge of the new zealand effort, that theyve basically given up hope searching surface area, anywhere near where the chinese pings were discovered over the weekend. They are putting all their eggs in the basket around where the u. S. Towed pinger locator heard those pings coming from what they suspect those two black boxes. Thats where the entire search is under way right now. Are you hearing the same thing there . Reporter well, we havent had a statement from the jack, the joint Agency Coordination unit thats headed up by the australian retired air chief marshal to that effect, but, yes, i heard that Wing Commander from new zealand saying that. It makes sense, to be frank, in the sense that all along, the emphasis, every since the australian vessel recorded those pings that it picked up for a period of two hours, 20 minutes, the other for 13 minutes, ever since that acoustic event took place, the focus, in effect, has been on that area. Its the most sophisticated ship they have in the multinational fleet of ships looking for the plane. Its got the hightech equipment on loan from the u. S. Navy, and theyve always felt this is the most likely spot where the plane went down, but they had to follow up on the lead from the chinese. I havent got confirmation that lead is now being closed off, but i wouldnt be surprised if they say it has been. Yeah, the Wing Commander told us theyve basically determined those pings that the chinese heard were nothing related to the missing black boxes, so theyve given up that search over there, but well check back with you, Matthew Chance, in perth. Thank you. Lets bring back our panel, rene marsh, along with our aviation analyst, tom fuentes. Peter, you agree with this notion they shouldnt put the bluefin, that drone, if you will, under water until they are 100 convinced the batteries of the two black boxes are dead, because that can interfere with those towed pinger locators. It could interfere, and theyve got to give the black box ten more days. If at the end of ten days they still have nothing, then they are going to have to sit down and reassess how they are going to map and search the ocean bottom in this new search area. Would it make any sense or interfere if you put two pinger locators in that area . Theyve basically narrowed it down to a few square miles, assuming those pings were, in fact, from the two black boxes . The key is not to interfere with yourself and not listen to each other. You need a pristine environment. We talk about the chinese pings, its quite possible they were listening to their own ping, so first of all, you want to make sure theres not a lot of commercial traffic around that area and make sure you know the noise, understand the noise from your own ship and try to get the pinger itself as far away as you can. So putting another ship in the area and another pinger only complicates matters. Rene, you agree, dont put the bluefin down there until you know for sure the batteries are dead. Absolutely, and not just because of interference, but also think about this, in order to communicate with this bluefin, you have to be within a certain distance of it to communicate navigational directions, also receive information from it. If you need to be married to that piece of equipment, it doesnt give you the flexibility to do the tracks that you were doing before to look for the pinging sound, so just practically speaking, it makes no sense to have both of these things in the water. You have to designate time to one or the other. I know they are looking on the surface, tom, for debris. Theyve been looking for a month, if you will, at least two and a half weeks in this area, the southern indian ocean, they havent seen or spotted anything. So my own sense is, based on what im hearing from experts, they really are relying on the two hours and 15 minutes of pinging that they heard. They think this is the area they are going to be most likely to find something. Normally the debris would be the key to this thing, but since they already heard pinging, it is backwards that you would find a pinging device before you would find surface debris, but thats what theyve got, thats what they discovered over the weekend and thats what they have to keep looking for, to go back to that. On the other hand, the surface debris is still important, they need to be looking for it. Hold on for a moment, aviation expert Jeffrey Thomas is joining us now. Jeffrey is the editor in chief 6 airlineratings. Com, hes joining us from perth, australia. Jeffrey, what are you hearing right now from the search . I take it they are still convinced the pings they detected, the towed pinger, thats the real thing, the locator, if you will, they are working under the assumption that they basically know roughly where those two black boxes are. Indeed, wolf. Theres a very high level of confidence that the signals that the ocean shield got, the two sets of signals they got, are the pinger from this aircraft. Because interestingly enough, exactly where its picked up this ping on this particular line is precisely where the calculations, the seventh set of calculations from the inmarsat satellites, the handshake that we know all about, theyve been continually refining that intelligence, the analysis, getting more data in. Theyve drawn up a line, a flight path line of this airplane, and this is where that flight path is, and also inmarsat have also said that, in fact, the actual location where the ocean shield is right now is where they believe the last handshake was made from the 777. So from that perspective, theres a very high level of confidence that this is the spot, and the fact that weve got these pings reenforces that significantly. So, if this is the spot where they heard the pings and where the inmarsat satellite data suggested the plane may be, i take it inmarsat must have done a brilliant job finding it without any debris whatsoever, because as everyone points out, usually you find some debris, later you find the black boxes. Well, indeed. Although, of course, we must remember that the initial analysis was had the location well south of where we are now, and had we been looking, i have been getting various data sent to them at different times from countries within southeast asia, military data, radar data, that, in fact, the story was broken on cnn a couple of days ago about the plane flying around malaysia. This information has come together in dribs and drabs from other countries, and theyve refined it. So, yes, they are on the spot, but, of course, now its a month later. Were now looking at a spot one month after the disappearance of this airplane, so a lot of the debris would have sunk in that month period. And its interesting that the australians are now deploying actually divers over the sides of run abouts in the area to have a look at what they think might be some submerged, slightly submerged debris, trying to sort of pick up one little fragment that says this is mh370. Is that in the area where the pinging was coming from, from those two boxes, where the australian divers are now going into the water . Indeed. In fact, the run abouts, the small boats, are being deployed, in fact, by the ocean shield, and they are towing divers along on the ocean on the surface of the ocean, just peering down, trying to see something. I mean, if they are able to pick up a safety card, you know, a Malaysian Airlines 777 safety card, the plastic safety cards you get in your seatback pocket, pick up one of those, and that tells you we actually have this airplane. That would be huge if they found it. So far, they havent found it. As much as we have to give inmarsat credit, we have to give radar credit, everybody else credit, theres got to be something secret we dont know about that helped all of these experts, miles, find these two black boxes if, in fact, those pinging sounds were from the two black boxes. There must be Something Else that they are not sharing for classified information reasons. Im sure theres a lot. Yesterday we were talking with commander marks of the u. S. Navy, i asked, was this a lucky spot, what got you there, and he side stepped it, as they do. The interesting thing is, and when this shifted to australia, that opened up the doors to share all kinds of Spy Satellite assets that the u. S. Has, because the agreement the u. S. Has with australia, so you know the doors open to those assets, as they call them. And who knows. The thing is, though, if, in fact, what would they see, a debris field, we would have spotted that debris field and known about it, so its unclear to me exactly how they would be deployed or used, but clearly that was used somehow. We may not find out for 20 or 30 years if, in fact, some classified information from u. S. Submarines or highly sophisticated devices were used to locate those two black boxes. We may not know that for awhile, because the u. S. And other countries, they are always reluctant, peter, to release information what they call sources and methods. Absolutely. It comes in dribs and drabs, as it was reported. I think weve just gotten the indonesian reports that were shared with us last week. Youre right, we wont know for ten years or more. I dont believe it was just luck, do you . Well, also with great fanfare a week or so ago they deployed a submarine tireless and since then weve heard nothing, so we have to assume it didnt get tired and leave the area. Its still there. Tireless is hearing any pings or whatever. All right, guys, thanks very much. Jeffrey, thanks to you, as well. Well certainly check back with you in perth, australia. Still ahead, news of areas how flight 370 may have crashed in the ocean and why there might be some very few clues on the surface of the water. And theres nothing happy about this birthday, a passengers family marks his big day, not knowing for sure if hes dead or alive. To truck guys, the truck is everything. And when you put them in charge of making an unbeatable truck. Good things happen. This is the ram 1500. The 2014 motor trend truck of the year and first ever backtoback champion. Guts. Glory. Ram. The was a truly amazing day. Without angies list, i dont know if we could have found all the services we needed for our riley. For over 18 years weve helped people take care of the things that matter most. Join today at angieslist. Com afghanistan, in 2009. Orbiting the moon in 1971. 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Cross fire wont be seen tonight so we can bring you more of our special coverage of the mystery of flight 370. Whats making the search for the missing plane even more complicated is crews arent even certain of what they are looking for, the kind of debris they may eventually find depends how the plane actually went down into the water. Cnns tom foreman is in the situation room. What do you think, tom . You would think it would make no difference whatsoever, but thats not the case. The way the plane hits the water actually does make a difference. Malaysia air 370 crashes into the sea, but how it hit could make a big difference in the debris field they are seeking. If the plane cart wheeled in like this hijacked ethiopian jet in 1996, the destruction would be tremendous. How does that happen . One wing dips lower than the other and catches the water first. Cnn aviation analyst and former pilot mark weiss. If it goes into a cart wheel, whats that do to the debris field . Depends on the conditions of the water. Remember, that water was very, very choppy, so it would break it up and take some of the pieces and just wash it away and some of it would have broken it up in lots of different areas and thrown it really all around. Still, that does not necessarily create a wide debris field. For that, a midair explosion is a more likely cause. Investigators say when a fuel tank erupted on twa800 as it climbed to 14,000 feet leaving new york, the result was three separate debris fields and a tireless search to find all the parts. Weiss says the same thing could be true if malaysia air exploded or caught on fire. Because that fire would have lasted for a bit of time in a cargo department, perhaps could have gone through the aircraft and things would have come out, so you would have had more debris along a longer flight path. A hard landing or crash into the water is no less destru destructive, but it may produce a smaller target for searchers. When that air france jet fell into the atlantic, the debris spanned only a few miles, and on the ocean floor, the bulk of the plane covered just a few football fields. And, of course, a soft landing remains a distant, but real, possibility. If the malaysia air flight landed like that u. S. Airways plane on the hudson river, it would have slipped under by now, and unless people were alive to scramble out with life rafts, there might be few clues it was ever there. And only a small target far beneath the surface. So as tragic as it may seem, the more cataclysmic the event above the water or at the surface of the water, the more debris to look for in that area, although to all of this you must add the factor of time. Even if they find it now after all this time for drifting and changes, you have to wonder if they can even establish a contact, a connection between whats on the surface and whats beneath. And there were some horrible weather, including a cyclone in that area, that could really disperse any debris that might have been on the surface. Yes, makes the challenge all the worse. Tom, thanks very much. Lets dig deeper with colleen keller, Senior Analyst with the consulting form metron. Do you think the malaysia plane, colleen, could have landed intact . Wolf, im very skeptical of that theory. If the airplane flew five or six hours on its own, i dont think somebodys going to be putting down that plane in the south indian ocean. Im pretty sure it just ran out of fuel and went in. The question is, whether it was vertical or gentle descent like the air france jet. Talk a little about what they call the try angulation thats necessary to really determine where the two black boxes are. They did hear pinging coming from two hours from one of the black boxes, they think, another 15 minutes or so from a second, but before they really know where they are, they want to trianulate, and that means hearing more pings, which they havent heard over the last couple days, so explain whats going on here. Sure, well, a lot of people are wondering, why dont we just quit and put the submarine down now, were on top of it, but the answer is, the debris field could still be spread over the bottom in fairly rocky or mountainous terrain and you might never find that black box, so while the black box is still beeping out, im here, im here, you might as well hone in on that signal. So what they are doing is they are trolling back and forth across the general area and they are hoping to pick up the signal. When youre right on top of it, then the signals loud, and as you move away, it decreases, or if youre even off to one side, the signal will increase and decrease as you go past your closest point of approach, so they are trying to get a mental picture on the map, actually, where the thing is based on the volume of the signal they are hearing, and the fact they are not hearing any signal right now either means they are in the wrong place, hard to say. Or the battery is completely dead and its not sending out any signal whatsoever, and the weaker the battery, the weaker the signal, right . Yeah. The disturbing thing is, once it hits a threshold its not going to just drop off. Its going to die off like a flashlight battery until eventually theres no more light. So its kind of odd that the signal is just absent now, where they had some nice round, you know, really strong returns before. Its hard to explain that. Im not sure whats going on. If they put that bluefin 21 into the water, they fear as long as they are still trying to search for those pings, they fear that could interfere with that search and thats why they want to wait to make sure theres absolutely positively no more pinging coming out, right . Yeah. Its like being at a rock concert and trying to hear the conversation next to you. They really want to make it as quiet an environment as they can so they can hear the very faint now signals coming from the box. In addition, using the bluefin, its just logistically not compatible with dragging the towed pinger locator through the water. The t. P. L. Has to be constantly moving so it doesnt drop to the bottom, but the bluefin to deploy it and bring it back, you have to stop the ship and lower it into the water, then you have to stay nearby the bluefin so you dont completely lose contact with it, so you really have to stop using the t. P. L. Before you move to the bluefin operations. Assuming the pings were the real thing and assuming the batteries die out, they havent found the black boxes, havent found debris, they are basically still searching for a relatively small area, a lot smaller than the air france area you were using, and it took two years to find those black boxes back in 2009 that air france plane that went into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of brazil. They are only going to be looking, what, 50 or 75, maybe 100 square miles, right . Yeah. Its a lot better situation than a week ago what we thought we were facing. I mean, its very encouraging. Its still quite possible we wont find it because its like combing through the surface and we dont know whats on the bottom, but its very encouraging they are in the right location and we know that the tools exist to detect this thing, its just a matter of getting them in the water and mow the grass, like we say. All right, colleen keller, thank you. Every day since the plane vanished has been gut wrenching for the relatives of the passengers and crew. Cnn David Mckenzie is joining us from beijing on more of this heartbreaking part of the story. David . Reporter well, thats right, wolf. The family members still dont believe that this necessarily the plane went down in the southern indian ocean, and theyve asked very pointed questions in the last few days of the malaysian authorities. You know, in the very first hours, because weve been following this from the first notification that the plane went missing, there was a rumor that went around that the plane landed or crashed in southwest china in an airport. A lot of that is coming back now. The families want to know, did it land there, did they have conclusive proof it didnt, and though all evidence points towards this plane landing in the southern indian ocean or crashing in the southern indian ocean, the families still, its human nature, want to ask the questions where the answer might be the most likely scenario the loved ones are alive, but many deep down inside, of course, fear for the worst. They do. I know there was an emotional ceremony today involving one of the families in beijing. Tell us about that. Reporter well, you know, theyve had these poignant moments during these weeks long wait, and its been an awful wait. There was a Birthday Celebration for a Young Chinese man that was a construction worker, he had a Birthday Celebration, his parents had a cake, had some family members there and committee members. Very tearful talk from the father. He said, you know, feng was trying to come home after a long time on construction. He hadnt spoken or seen his son, in fact, in more than a year and a half. The son decided to take a longer and cheaper flight through malaysia from singapore, though it was paid for by the construction company, and, obviously, now he is missing. The father said to us, i dont believe my son is dead, Im Still Holding out hope he might be alive, and just wishing he had taken that more direct route from singapore to beijing. Just one small detail, i met a nigerian businessman who recognized me from my work in africa, he said, you know, he was due to come to beijing on that flight and decided to come a day earlier. This is such a popular route here in asia for businessmen, for families, and everybody, and just so many close shaves, as well as these poignant stories, still weeks after and no concrete evidence for these family members. Wolf . Such a sad, sad story, indeed. David mckenzie in beijing, thanks very much. Lets bring in our aviation correspondent, richard quest. Richard, the chinese families, all the families, they want answers. Its a month later. They are not getting a whole lot of answers. You cant really blame them for being so frustrated, being so disappointed in what the leadership of these various countries are saying. Absolutely, and i think by now, we should have been having a proper statement of facts from the investigation authorities. Normally, if you look back, British Airways 32 had a statement of facts within a couple of days, quantis had a statement of facts within a month or so. Normally after a month, wolf, you do get it doesnt often tell you much, but it does pull all the strands together of what the investigators know. It sort of pats it up quite nicely, and it allows you to know whats known and whats not known. So, for instance, we should have known more details about what they definitely think on the flight route, what they think on the altitude, on the speed. It should have had a few more details about the inmarsat, and i think we are now getting to the point where legitimately we can say to the malaysians, okay, its been a month, now its time for the annex 13 investigation to say something. Lets say they give up over the next five or ten days in trying to hear a ping from one of the two black boxes. How much longer should it take, assuming those pings were accurate coming from the two black boxes over the past few days, how much longer do you think realistically it will take to find those black boxes, presumably there on the bottom of the indian ocean . If they have to do it by side scanner sonar, literally going down and mapping the bottom of the ocean for 100oddsquare miles, im no expert, but Angus Houston is, and last night he kept saying again and again, it will take a long, long time. It will take many, many days, he said, weeks, could be months. Now, the good part is theres no good part, frankly, the encouraging part is, that the weather in that part of the ocean is not the roaring 40s, so they wont lose much in terms of the winter. They will be able to keep going for as long as possible, money, political will, and determination, all being equal. However, they will have to regroup, because what they will be very, very careful about is, once they start plan b, searching the ocean bottom, they will want to make sure theyve got exactly as much theyve squeezed as much information from inmarsat, from the pings, from try yangulation, everything they can, because if you remember, you were talking to david about 447, they looked in the wrong place for the first time, because theyd got the data wrong. So now they are going to want to make sure whatever little data theyve got, its used to its best advantage. You know, its interesting, we did hear from the new zealand Wing Commander whos involved in this operation. They no longer believe the chinese pings that were detected over the weekend had anything to do with wreckage or from the black boxes of the plane. He, in fact, said for all practical purposes given up even searching in that area where the chinese detected something that sounded like pings. We dont have confirmation from others, the australians arent saying that, at least not yet, maybe they will at the News Conference later. What are you hearing about the whole chinese part of this story . The chinese government, obviously, is concerned since it was more than 150 of its nationals that were on the plane. However, exactly what their involvement has been, exactly how much help they have been, is by no means certain. We get the right diplomatic noises from Angus Houston, as you would expect, but their contribution so far, at least publicly, seems to be one of twofold. Either a satellite picture of the South China Sea that was released by accident, at the very beginning, nearly had everybody heading off to the wrong area, or of ping in the southern indian ocean using equipment that experts say was rudimentary at best, that cant be replicated. I think the chinese involvement will be an interesting footnote to any final thoughts on mh370. Richard quest reporting for us, thank you very much. Just ahead, pro russia uprisings in Eastern Ukraine, prompting moscow to warn of possible civil war, but what about the tens of thousands of Russian Troops massed along the border . Plus, the latest on the roundtheclock search of malaysian flight 370, now focused on a dramatically smaller search area. [ male announcer ] when fixed income experts. Work with equity experts. Who work with regional experts. Who work with Portfolio Management experts, thats when expertise happens. Mfs. Because there is no expertise without collaboration. 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And ask an Insurance Expert about all our benefits today, like our 24 7 support and service, because at Liberty Mutual insurance, we believe our customers do their best out there in the world, so we do everything we can to be there for them when they need us. Plus, you could save hundreds when you switch, up to 423. Call. Today. Liberty Mutual Insurance responsibility. Whats your policy . Well have more on the search for Malaysia Flight 370 in just a moment. First, russia warning of possible civil war in ukraine if the kiev government uses force to put down uprisings in Eastern Ukraine. Nick paton walsh is on the scene for us in Eastern Ukraine right now. Nick, what are you seeing . Reporter a lot of tension in three key eastern ukrainian cities, all eyes on lohanz square. Security officials claim 60 people are being held hostage by armed pro russian activists. I should say those russians themselves say they are not holding hostages, but here where i am in danask, the local administration see seized two pro russian advocates. Heres what they had to say to us earlier today, wolf. Its small, scruffy, but noisy. This tiny space is the self declared peoples republican of danask, where days ago, it was just the local government building. Its a bit like the pro europe protests of midan square in kiev, the clumsy barricades, molotov cocktails, tires ready to burn, and the lack of a leader or concrete plan, fed by local donations. But theres one huge difference, these people want to join russia and russia, even its army, to help them do it. This man says, hes from the eastern front, a new local group. Were about 6,000 people, he says, men ready to protect the fatherland, but women, too, even the elderly. They say theyve let us in because they want to show that they are here entirely peacefully, but there are clear preparations ready here. They are worried about an assault by ukrainian forces, particularly from the roof. Theyve barricaded the stairwells. The power went out last night. Many, like these nurses, fearing special forces were coming, but they didnt, and their numbers and readiness grow. Fears of poverty fuel this, that the rivalry between kiev and moscow will cost them their jobs. Rising prices, wages worth less by the day. Some, like tatyana, hanker for the soviet past. My father was a retired kgb colonel, she says, this is why im here and were going to stand until the end. The top floor here was the new office of ukrainian billionaire appointed governor by kiev to fix the economy and to be rich beyond corruption. Sergei, elsewhere for now, says moscow isnt behind this, its mostly local complaints. Translator weve had a lot of negotiations with them, he says, there are no people so committed here who would be prepared to sacrifice their lives. This rhetoric borders on bravado, he says, adding the Russian Forces on the border are aimed at imposing psychological pressure. This tiny pocket of grievances and whims sat at the heart of a massive struggle for europes east, and so powerful far beyond its size. Reporter now, wolf, of course, the concern is as you saw there, these moments seem to flare. They go through times assaulted by special forces, now the standoff allegedly with hostages involved, people deeply worried each one of these instances, something could go wrong, there could be some bloodshed, and that could be the cause that moscow needs to send in troops, and they say, to intervene to help their come patriots, wolf . Thank you, Nick Paton Walsh in Eastern Ukraine, very tense situation. Those developments have secretary of state john kerry talking about much tougher sanctions against russia. Lets bring in our pentagon correspondent, barbara starr. Is there a solid military reason right now for the u. S. To be this concerned about whats going on along that border between ukraine and russia. You know, wolf, if you talk to officials, there absolutely is. U. S. Spy satellites have been watching that border for days now. The buildup of 40,000 heavily armed Russian Troops, but right now they are staying on that side of the border. Its this new unrest that nick was just talking about that has the u. S. So concerned. Secretary of state john kerry today using the most blunt words, saying the unrest in these ukraine cities now is at the behest of russian agent and provocate provocateurs, his words. I want you to listen to a little bit more of what he had to say. These efforts are as ham handed as they are transparent, frankly, and quite simply, what we see from russia is an illegal and illegitimate effort to destabilize a sovereign state and create a contrived crisis with paid operatives across an International Boundary engaged in this initiative. And barbara, all of this making the european allies very nervous right now. Wolf, i think we have a map to show you. Lets put it up there for just a minute. Look at this arc of concern. The u. S. On thursday will send another navy warship into the black sea, f16s will go to romania for exercises, there are additional fighter jets from the u. S. In poland, in lithuania, that is the arc of concern, really in the heart of europe right now. Countries that the u. S. Wants to show it will stand with if the russians make a move, if there is military instability, it leads to political instability, and possible economic concerns right in the heart of europe. Wolf . All right, barbara, thank you very much. Still ahead, why critics accuse president obama of criticizing women, details of his latest move around congress. And well also have much more on the search for flight 370. Citi thankyou card to get two times the points at the coffee shop. Which will help me get to miami. And theyll be stuck at the cube farm. The Citi Thankyou preferred card. Now earn two times the points on dining out with no annual fee. Go to citi. Com thankyoucards. To help protect your eye health as you age. Would you take it . Well, there is. [ male announcer ] its called ocuvite. A vitamin totally dedicated to your eyes, from the eye care experts at bausch lomb. As you age, eyes can lose vital nutrients. Ocuvite helps replenish key eye nutrients. Ocuvite has a unique formula not found in your multivitamin to help protect your eye health. Now thats a pill worth taking. [ male announcer ] ocuvite. Help protect your eye health. Abe get in punch it [ male announcer ] let quicken loans help you save your money with a mortgage thats engineered to amaze. Thanks, g. More on the mystery of Malaysia Flight 370 coming up. But first to the white house where president obama is now spotlighting the wage gap between men and women. Republican critics accusing him of politicizing the entire issue, politicizing women, not helping them. Cnns athena jones reports. America should be a level playing field. Reporter in a move he says will help the economy, president obama signed two executive actions to promote equal pay for men and women. Women make up about half of our workforce. And theyre increasingly the breadwinners for a whole lot of families out there. So when they make less money, it means less money for gas, less money for groceries, less money for child care. Less money for college tuition. Reporter an executive order bans Government Contractors from targeting workers who talk about their salaries. A president ial memorandum requires a report on workers pay by race and gender to help identify cases of discrimination. But both moves still leave a lot of women out. He is leading by example, but at the same time today, he called on congress to pass a piece of legislation that has been sitting up on the hill today called paycheck fairness. It would do the same thing as the executive order would do, except it would apply to all employers around the country. Reporter and while the president often says women make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns, even his own Labor Department puts that number higher, at 81 cents. And the conservative American Enterprise institute shows the white house has its own wage gap, with female staffers making 88 cents for every dollar the men make. Some opponents all these figures are exaggerated. When you control for any number of very important factors, what someone majored in college, how much time they spent out of the workforce, how much time they spent in the office each day, that that wage gap shrinks to almost nothing, the wage gap does kpexist four five cents. Reporter republicans say this is all just politics. On this equal payday, i would urge us to stop politicizing women and lets start focusing on the policies that are actually going to help women and everyone in this country have a better life. And of course, a lot of this is about politics, wolf. Democrats see equal pay as an issue that is good for them when it comes to appealing to women voters. And looking ahead to the midterm elects in november, democrats are going to need women voters to win. Women came out strongly in favor of democrats in 2008 and 2012, but republicans won women in 2010. And youll remember that was not a very good year for congressional democrats. Wolf . Athena jones at the white house, thank you. Still ahead, the latest developments in the search for flight 370. Gunderman group. Gunderman group is growing. Getting in a groove. Growth is gratifying. Goal is to grow. Gotta get greater growth. Growth . Growth. I just talked to ups. Theyve got a lot of great ideas. Like smart pick ups. 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Were following all the developments in the mystery of flight 370, the search that detect electronic pings in the southern indian ocean could continue for another week to ten days until the authorities are convinced the batteries in the black boxes are dead. So far they havent been able to relocate signals picked up by an australian ship over the weekend. An underwater drone is now on standby. Thats it for me. Thanks very much for watching. Im wolf blitzer in the situation room. Erin Burnett Outfront starts right now. Time and optimism are fading fast. Searches at this hour racing to confirm pings that could be from flight 370s black boxes. The airplane news taking off to search. A live update from the team in a moment. Plus, the man who made the pinger everyone is trying to find. Does he think investigators are zeroing in on the black boxes or not . And Oscar Pistorius today in his own words, what he says he was thinking the night he killed his girlfriend. Lets go outfront. Good evening, everyone. Im erin Burnett Outfront tonight. The breaking news in the search for Malaysia Airlines flight 370. The air search justum