thunderstorm event that the pilot on may have been trapped in. perhaps this leads you to a theory that the tail detached before impact. of course it s all speculation a this point. we don t know the depth of the water. with he know three teams of five divers are in the search area there s also an echo sounder that is being used though led them to this object. considering it s monsoon season and we don t mow the depth. how difficult is it for the teams to get as low as they need had to be to answer the questions and figure out if there s horizontal stabilizer it seems that you can see avert cal you can see a vertical stabilizer here. many have been riveted to the image we have been showing. it s more like a north atlantic
carefully. they can be very effective using handheld locators a diver uses. they ll be able to map this site similar to the way dave had mentioned. not with visual but with multisounder. so the entire site is mapped out. we don t know yet whether we re talking about small concentrated debris field or one that s more spread out. but if it s small and concentrated it may only be 200 meters by 400 meters. a multib echo sounder can map that and centimeter type resolution before anybody touches anything and then you ll go in and start dealing with bodies in the black boxes. extraordinarily difficult task for both emotionally and obviously physically for all of these searchers and obviously the families waiting as well. david merns, thank you. david gallo. up next the grieving families. what they are facing now and in the coming weeks and months
autonomous underwater vehicle. for the people who run it it s basically a smart torpedo. reporter: and right now it may be the best remaining hope for finding wreckage from flight 370. we were given exclusive access behind the scenes at phoenix international, the company which runs the bluefin, to see just how it works. while it may launch from the side of a search ship, the bluefin is actually operated by remote control with help from a satellite. its job, not to listen for pings but to map the ocean floor and look for debris. to do that, it can use two different payloads which have to be swapped out. this particular payload section is the acoustic section. reporter: first the bluefin uses side-scan sonar and a multibeam echo sounder, detectors that bounce sound waves off objects on the ocean floor that aren t natural. the bluefin can be brought to the surface, the sonar technology gets taken out, and high-tech cameras put in. it s a high definition black and white camera
its job, not to listen for ping buzz to map the ocean floor and look for debris. to do that it can use two different pay loads which have to be swapped out. this particular payload section is the akoos particulars section. first it uses an echo sounder. it bounces sound waves off the ocean floor that aren t natural. if those are picked up the bluefin can be brought to the surface. high-tech cameras get put in. a hey tech camera capable of three frame per second. together they can create a detailed mostation of the ocean floor. if wreckage is down there, the bluefin will find it. the technology is good enough that we can resolve something that is, as small as a microwave. perhaps even smaller. it is not an easy or fast process. it takes vehicles two hours to dive to the bottom. 16 hours to search about a
control with help from a satellite. its job, not to listen for pings but to map the ocean floor and look for debris. to do that, it can use two different payloads which have to be swapped out. this particular payload section is the acoustic section. reporter: first, the bluefin uses side scan sonar and an echo sounder, it detects sound waves off the ocean floor that are not natural. if those are picked up, the bluefin can be brought to the surface. the sonar technology gets taken out and high-tech cameras are put in. it s a high-definition black and white camera capable of three frames per second. reporter: together they can create a detailed mosaic of the ocean floor. investigators are confident that if wreckage is down there, the bluefin will find it. the technology is good enough that we can resolve something that is good enough as small as a microwave, perhaps even smaller. reporter: but it s not an easy or fast process. it takes the vehicle two hours