we ve seen some of the questions before, but as the time has gone by, the families haven t had answers, this list has grown. the first 12 questions are all about the emergency locator transmitter. this transmitter or transmitters that could be or should be deployed if the plane crashes, if it impacts water. so some of the questions that they have, how many of these elts, emergency locator transmitters, were onboard? and when were they checked? did they have physical protection? should they float to the surface on impact with water? should they begin transmission on impact with water? what are the frequencies that they use? a lot of very, very detailed questions where there should be very specific answers. they haven t got those answers yet. they would also like to know the serial number of the black box. they would like to know precisely what data can be expected from the black box. they ve asked the question about contact phone numbers for captain shah who was the pilot,
and in this scenario, we re talking about if there were survivors, then i would say well, why weren t the doors open with the slide rafts deployed? and the slide rafts have emergency locator transmitters, elts. they would have been thrown into the water. i find it highly unlikely. i guess if you re in some scenario where you re flying the plane and the only person alive. correct. mary, does this add up? as you just saw in david mattingly s reporting, a plane hitting the ground and hitting the water at these kinds of speeds, unless it s a very controlled landing, is essentially the same thing. but if there are pieces as in almost any scenario other than the one he said, and even that one is dicey. i ll get to why in a moment, they haven t found any. how come? well, there are many reasons why they might not have found any. first of all, the sunny that les just talked about. but with so much time passing between when they actually got to the area where they believe
could bring her home. of course, i m still hoping for god s miracles, but just like what we want is the reality, the true story. that s just heartbreaking. the majority of those on board flight 370 are from china. relatives continue to demand more information about the flight and the search from the airline and also the malaysian government. they did just receive a briefing in the past hour or so, so let s go to cnn s pauline chiou live in beijing. any sense, pauline, what they heard? reporter: yeah, in fact, john, that briefing is still going on, and there s a lot of discussion right now about the four emergency beacons that are on that aircraft. this is the elts, the emergency locator transmitters. now, this is a continuation of a discussion that we had yesterday, at sunday s briefing, when one woman asked about the elts.
touched down in a controlled fashion, with pilots at the controls, waves, it is very difficult. this is not a hudson river type scenario. this is, you know, a scenario with major swells, and if it did touch down, we d be thinking about survivors because the rafts would be deployed and we would be in a whole other situation because the rafts have emergency locator transmitters on them. next question, honestly, people are wondering and wanting to find the bright orange data recorder, known as the black box. i know three weeks into this, they re bolted into the tail, they re aluminum, in the tail, able to withstand a head on crash. what about the question, why not make black boxes so they can float, les. well, then you would probably not be able to put it in the structural part of the airplane that would protect it. i think there s more. there s better ways that we have
part of the church. beyond that the hurdle has become extremely high. they will use mathematical models to see how far it drifted. sonar voice cboo wes can be dro into the water to pick up pings from the black boxes or emergency locator transmitters. they can only be detected from a mile away and batteries only last 30-days. they would send manned or unmanned subs but the plane could be 12,000 feet deep. the crash was back in 2009. it took two years and $100 million to recover the black boxes add to that the indian ocean is known for under water volcanoes earthquakes and land slides and if you have lava or mud on the wreckage, megyn, the astronomical odds get even