away. that s why the box has to be so big to accommodate all these possibilities. and yet even as it has that size, they try to cut it down a step at a time to increase the probability they ll find this plane. testimoom, thank you very mu. that s why this news tonight is so significant, because it does help try to focus the area of the search if in fact the attempt at a hand shake is when one of the last engines went out, or perhaps when it went into the water. we want to look at the tools that search teams can use in the indian ocean and will use. sonars, hydrophones, waterproof microphones. stephanie elam is off a boat in the pacific ocean. reporter: it s really interesting technology and it s a difficult task. i m joined by james coleman, and
ended up. and that is why one theory continues to persist here. it is the ghost, the zombie plane theory. it involves the pilots becoming incapacitated, the plane flying on auto pilot, ultimately descending onto the ocean when the fuel runs out. cnn s martin savidge live in a flight simulate tore test our theory for us. what did you come up with, martin? don, there are a couple of variations that can be done on the theme of the ghost plane or zombie plane. it could be a decompression, sudden decompression that incapacitates the crew. in our scenario it s going to be a fire. but whatever, you re at altitude, you re flying along, there s been no problem with the flight so far, everybody back in the passenger area is relaxed and settling in. and then all of a sudden you get some kind of alarm. for us, it s the fire alarm that goes off. this immediately sets off a series of almost automatic events. the copilot and pilot would begin delegating here. we d say, all right, you fly the plane,
it connotes a sinister as peck to it. i prefer to call it a ghost plane. but we have seen things like this before. i know you guys have been talking about helios from 2005. that s a classic example of a pressurizati pressurization issue where the crew didn t realize what was happening fast enough to deal with it. in that circumstance, the airplane just once the pilots passed out, kept going to its destination, athens, went into orbit at altitude, and it too crashed after it ran out of gas. the thing here is, with all of the radical maneuvers up front, and the obvious turn that had to occur to put it on this direct south heading, that argues for something else. and in terms of a fire, i ve studied a lot of fire accidents. and literally every single one that has resulted in the
this very well could have flown with no auto pilot inputs at all which would also explain a much further left turn than would have been on auto pilot when it passed the last programmed way-point it would have just continued on the same ground track it was on until it ran out of gas. that s why i think the auto pilot was out. the two things, the pitch changes and the fact that the headings swung around as far down to the southwest as it did, very likely scenario that that could have happened and all communications systems, transponder, radios, acars, if there was some sort of problem with an electrical fire in that center pedestal area or supply for those things that would have been knocked out. which we may very well have had a zombie airplane flying across the country, aka payne stewart s crash. bill, i don t think you buy this theory, do you? first off i really don t like the term zombie plane. it connotes a sinister as peck to it. i prefer to call it a ghost plane.
covers 35,000 square miles in and around the indian ocean and the gulf of thailand. of course, chinese sat images picked up possible debris from the plane s last confirmed position, but planes sent to the area turned up nothing. this wall street journal report clearly is driving the day on this story and this idea that essentially it may have been a ghost plane for four hours, a la the payne stewart incident, and it may mean looking for it somewhere over the indian ocean or somewhere closer to the border of pakistan. a quick look at the first number in today s databank and big news for american workers. 3.1 million. that s how many salaried workers could become eligible for overtime pay if the labor department changes the rules the president is thinking about tinkering with. today, president obama is asking the labor department to review the regulations that label people as managers or professionals, that could qualify them for hourly overtime.