tracking a major development tonight about the missing malaysian flight 370 and what may have happened inside the cockpit. it is about the heading and the altitude of the plane before it vanished from radar. source close to the investigation is telling cnn that according to military radar records, the plane made a sharp turn and dropped a considerable distance toward the ground. that s important because our source tells us that maneuver was done abruptly in just two minutes or so, meaning the pilots likely did it intentionally. we ll explore some of the y reasons why they might do that. and wherever you are around the world tonight, we re taking and answering your questions about that missing airplane. make sure you go to twitter and use #370qs. now, as the days pass, the despair grows for families of flight 37 0 of the 227
learn more at first5california.com/parents welcome back. we re tracking breaking news tonight. a source close to the investigation of malaysia airlines flight 370 tells cnn according to military radar records, the plane made a sharp turn and dropped from 35,000 feet to 12,000 feet. let s see what that drop in altitude would look like. we want to go to martin savidge in a 777 flight simulator with flight trainer mitchell casado. a turn to 12,000 feet into a busy air corridor, i mean, what would that be like? i m sure people would notice that. reporter: yeah, it surrounds dramatic. but we should point out this
like to ask the malaysian military authorities what radar they re using in order to give thus altitude information, because the altitude information will be key to where we go next. otherwise, it is supposition. you re shaking your head in agreement, jeff wise. i heard from my sources too that primary radar is very inaccurate at determining altitude. and, you know, again, i think the point you raise is excellent, don, why are we hearing about this now? especially in the context of these conflicting reports about whether the acars is indicating a change in way point before 15 minutes or wherever, it seems very odd that this information should come out so late or should be changed so late. should have been clear. does this support or change your theory about what happened to 370? i think we all have a probability matrix of what happened. i don t know what happened to this airplane. i ascribe higher probability to certain outcomes than other people would. short answer, no. maria
great to have both of you with us. there s so much here to talk about. but when we put this reporting together, john, we have a plane that turned off of its flight path, started to switch direction dramatically, switch altitude dramatically and seemed to level out heading out. and then made a choice, i m going to go left or right. when you put all that together, let s faulk about motive. who would want to do this or could this have happened in any way, shape or form with everybody on the plane being incapacitated or dead, the plane just kept flying? i think not. i think that s ruled out by the very physiology of it. the aircraft is not going to make course changes. it might make altitude changes. if this plane went up to 45,000 feet after it turned off course and it sustained that 45,000 foot altitude, which is above
reach this altitude, and we should point out that mitchell is flying. what would the controls feel like at this altitude? very, very unstable. almost to the point where they re uncontrollable. akin to trying to juggle while you re on a unicycle blind. you can pick up the craziest analogy possible. reporter: what would the passengers feel? very unstable, possibly unconscious. if you wanted to kill your passengers, this would be a good way to do it. reporter: there s no way to each simulate dropping 40,000 feet in a minute. but we re going to push the plane as steeply as we can and there s all sorts of things that go wrong. what is this telling us? that we re sinking close