aviation circles in iran that the lifting or easing of sanctions against that country in return for it suspending its nuclear weapons program, is not filtering through in terms of spare ports and improved maintenance. that is not to say, however, that there is any link established at all, yet, between the disappearance of this aircraft, and any mechanical failure. well, we have seen protests by iranians saying that they want more resources to stay in their country, and spend them domestically. again, as you say, we don t know the cause of this crash. was there any hint or anything, do we know, from the cockpit, of trouble? there hasn t been yet any indication that there was a mayday signal or a communication expressing concern on behalf of the captain. the aircraft company has released a photograph showing a man until late middle age, clearly a veteran captain, so
vancouver island off the coast of the mainland of british columbia, jake. stephanie, the same boating company was involved in another deadly accident. what are you learning about that case? reporter: right. that was in 1998. and there were four people on the boat. the operator of the boat and three tourists, they went out to see marine life. and the way it has been explained is that there was a swell, a large swell that came up and tossed the boat into the water so quickly that there wasn t chance to get a mayday signal out. after that happened two of the people died including the operator. and two were rescued. at that point at this point though there s no reason to compare the two incidents other than to say there s been a tragic accident that has happened more than once with this same company, jake. all right. stephanie elam, thank you so much. also in world headlines, a sense of panic in afghanistan after a powerful 7.5 earthquake today. dead with hundreds more hurt.ed- the
the captain tries to fight the fire with the fire bottle and within minute it is burns a hole in the fuselage. not a big problem if you re sitting on the ground but if that were to happen, that scenario and i m not saying it did but if that were to happen at 35,000 feet, i think captain tillman would say, that s a double whammy and i m not sure anybody could have handled that compound emergency in reality. jim, one thing we ve struggled with here, how do we account for the fact that the crew never sends a mayday signal to indicate to the ground that something wrong had happened? i d like to think that they were so busy they didn t get around to it but someone asked how difficult is it to get off a message? well, the mike button is right under the captain s thumb. he pushes on that and he s talking on the air. i don t think it s difficult to do and it s been a real problem for me as to why they didn t say
evidence. they are now tonight, here, because the time is much more forward than there, they say they are widening that search, but it really is a mystery. and one of the difficulties is, the plane was so high, didn t give off a mayday signal, so it may well have traveled for some time, it may even have been able to turn, so there is a very wide area to search, chris. keir simmons in kuala lumpur for us, thank you so much, keir. meantime, violent pr tests as vladimir putin shows little sign he s willing to take concrete steps to ease the crisis in ukraine. on wednesday, president obama will host the oval office meeting with ukraine s new prime minister in another show of support for the pro west government. the tension in ukraine was on full display in a pair of duelling protests yesterday. pro ukrainian demonstrators were attacked by russian supporters and in another eastern ukraine town, russian sympathizers
well, this ship was an academic scientific research vessel. basically they were doing test on the marine wildlife and the birds around the antarctic when the temperatures dropped on monday and they were literally frozen where they were. and on christmas day in the morning they sent out a mayday signal and it s taken three days since that signal for these three vessels to arrive and the first is now not just on its way but literally within eye shot. just hours ago, joy on board the ship, passengers pointing out into the distance as a chinese ice breaker set to rescue them slowly makes its way towards them. this russian flagship, stuck in the ice for four days now after