pilots. well, if you think about the satellite imagery that s coming in to the pilots, it s generally a guide for where they can look but the waves and the wind currents of the ocean can move debris several miles dozens of miles before planes can actually get there. so when you think about how these planes execute these search areas, they re given a general grid, so a box in which they have to search in. so if you think about it like mowing your lawn, you have your yard and you have to go back and forth and back and forth in a very systematic way so you can check off that grid and make sure it s it s clear and it s ready to go and then move onto the next kind of search area that you re being directed to in this case by the australians. i know when they spot debris they throw buoys out of the plane to sort of mark the spot, right? there s all sorts of series of markers that the p-3s and the
it 3,500 meters deep, 2,500 kilometers from perth. eig it s a massive logistic exercise. there are four australian p-3s, a p-8 from the united states, two illusions from china, there s a p-3 coming from korea with a c-130h this afternoon. i want to thaake the opportunit to thank all of those countries for their assistant. i had lunch with the teams and they re keeping their aircrafts flying and keeping their teams up to the minute enthusiasm. hms success has had to deployed to the west to avoid
rare on this aircraft. this is the most reliable aircraft in the skies right now. jim, you held a high jock at the ntsb. you were former chairman, where would you now take this investigation to try to get some kind of resolution. the international aviation organization they need to equip these aircraft. they ve been sitting on that recommendation for five years. if this aircraft had been equipped with a deployable recorder like the f-18 aircraft we have in the united states, like the p3s that are conducting the search for the australian air force, we would know and have the information out of the black boxes and know the location of this crash. all of this anguish, all of this posturing about the politicians in malaysia would not have occurred. and we would possibly have had a more responsible investigation. right, i mean, jim, that is
controlled camera from the international space station to get images of any possible plane debris sites. as far as aircraft in the air, especially the lockheed-built p-3 reconnaissance planes, the united states, japan, china and new zealand have deployed the p-3s. the p-8, the sophisticated version, come courtesy of the united states. barbara starr joins us right now. barbara, give us a sense of this arsenal being deployed. well, you know, it s not just the equipment, but the number of countries that have come together in this very unexpected coalition. this is the size in the coalition of what you do for a real military operation. here, of course, a humanitarian effort to find out what happened to the people on board this flight. and it is going to grow, as they begin to locate potential debris. now the u.s. navy has added something to the mix.
mc-130s. these are not the sub hunters or not as cape blg as the p-3s but they can be refueled in the air with aerial tankers and stay on station. they can only scan, look, they don t have the radar and the infrared like the p-3s have. but that is something somebody should ask for and ask for quickly. because we have to find the wreckage to lead us to the black boxes to lead us to the surface wreckage. right. matthew, quickly weigh in here. yeah. find the wreckage. that s first and foremost. at that point, the two other searches begin for the flight data recorder and then everything else that would hopefully be on the bottom of the floor of the ocean. all right, gentlemen. thank you for your insight today. you re welcome. it is a painful time for the families of those on flight 370. and there is an organization here in the united states that is reaching out to help those people deal with the emotional trauma. we ll talk to the founder of the support group who lost a loved one