expertise. expertise that we don t believe that they had. so again, to the extent that the malaysians are willing to accept the help of a more capable and experienced partners, we re more likely to yield the sort of information and results that we need. i want to bring van in to this. there s a video. i m going to show him the video and i want you to explain what is going on. this could be very critical. it s a sonar buoy. you see this plane and you see something come out. that s the buoy. explain what happens as it enters the water and you see a series of steps that unfold. all right. so this is a standard piece of equipment employed by our and the australian s p-3s and p-8s. what you ve got is one type that goes to the surface to have a radio antenna and now you have hydrophones that are coming out of the buoy casings themselves. this becomes a short-term listening device at that point in the ocean. it s got a radio antenna so it s talking to the aircraft the
long way south on the australian continent. so, john, you just don t have that maritime traffic, you don t have those busy sea lanes or, indeed, air corridors either. so, they do face problem after problem after problem. but they do have a lead, they have some very, very sophisticated devices. the u.s. are here with their most sophisticated surveillance planes, the p-8s, the poseidons, these long-range p-3s. they re all workhorses, but they ve been rebooted several times and they ve got some pretty strong technology on board. so, technologically, if they can be found, you ve got the right assets on the case. yes, you do. and in fact, commercial satellites are now being redirected to take pictures of that area. as andrew s been saying, planes now going back and forth as frequently as they can, ships on the way, literally from space, from the air and now from the sea trying to search this area. our andrew stevens in perth, australia. we ll come back and check in with you in just a litt
mentioned. seat back cushions are designed to float and aluminum parts will sink in rough seas. they use composite materials and some light materials and trap air inside and those parts will float for some time. that means we will potentially see, like the france flight 447 was also made of that composite material. letting up those air pockets to provide it to float. john, let me talk to you about the p-8. you talk about the sophistication of the poseidon is refueling and its team getting rest before traveling back out. talk to us about the ability of the p-3s. some people on twitter and online have been asking me to ask people about the p-3s and that they may be the real aircraft that gets to the debris first or finds it first. the p-3 built by lockheed is a four-engine turboprop and it
pingers, those p-3s are still pretty good. finding the black box. why malaysian officials say they may not be able to find it before it goes silent. plus, the indian oceans are the deepest, darkest oceans on earth. what crews will use to scour the floor of the ocean to search for clues. are you still sleeping? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule. the first technology of its kind. mom and dad, i have great news.
rest because they can t go immediately back up. what i am yesterday to determine is where the p 3s are staggering. i m still trying to figure that out. it would make logical sense, especially since they can see with their advanced gear about 10,000 square miles. then they have a target area of where they believe this suspect debris is. so it s not as if they re now trying to focus on, as they were, an area that was 120,000 square miles. now they re working an area which is slightly south of that 120,000 square mile box that the national transportation safety board had laid out as a possible place where the plane went down. kerry, for the p3s, for our audience to understand, these are smaller aircraft, propeller aircraft, right? exactly. at first glance you might think it s not as good as a jet. quite frankly, the propeller