we understand that australia media was reporting that perhaps more than one object was found. cnn not able to confirm those reports. we understand the object is currently in police custody. atsb saying the current photographs they have are more than enough for them to be able to make an assessment if it s connected to mh370. erin, did this object of interest wash up onshore? if it did, have there been other objects they found onshore that turned out to be nothing rfr it did wash up onshore about 190 miles to the south of perth. if other objects have washed up that were remotely interesting, we haven t been notified. this is the first item of significance that they have thought to call to the media s attention in this search for debris. there have been plenty of items
director is now essentially on the record saying they re going to be investigating what happened, obviously. they have said previously that all of their standards, their perimeters met tsa standards. it s clear based upon this incident that something needs to be done. it s something that not only applies to shaig, carol, but other airports across the country. it seems rather obvious that there are breaches in the system that somebody easily can hop over a fence at least here in san jose. it begs the question, if a teenager could do it, a terrorist could do it as well and maybe put a bomb in a wheel well. that s a terrifying thought. dan simon reporting live. thanks so much. still to come, a serious lead in the search for flight 370. is it a break through or another piece of ocean debris. we ll ask the former inspector general for the u.s. department of transportation next.
or sightings found by any number of military planes that take up into the skies every day, scouring for any signs of mh370, all those sightings so far having been ruled out. erin mclaughlin reporting live in perth. joining me, thomas altshuler the vice president at teledyne marine systems. welcome. good morning. good morning. let s talk about this possible debris, an object of interest. it washed up onshore. a long piece of metal with rivets. should we be at all optimistic about this? i think we need to be cautious. the first thing we said it a lot. we said it about the acoustic noise. the ocean is full of stuff. i m going to say stuff because it has acoustic energy in it, things that have fallen over ships, things that have washed offshore. there s a lot of material in the ocean. so it s not outrageous that it would be completely not
even the high amount that we see is one piece of plastic every square ten feet or so. so even though there is a lot of plastic it is very much extended over huge areas, thousands of miles. uh-huh. so the best way to stop it on the surface is to be aware of it and stop dumping stuff in the ocean if we can avoid it. and what about below the surface in the area they re searching? what types of debris can be found on the ocean floor, erik? well, to be honest, we don t know enough about the ocean floor and about the type of debris there is. and really there was only one study that came out last year at the monterey bay aquarium in the west coast, which was a really good study. they went back to all the food extended they had from the submarine there, the auv, and they looked at all of this footage and just tried to see how much plastic there was.
stage, lots of airplanes in the air today. les abend, are you concerned that the search may be ending too soon? yeah, it seems to me it is getting expensive but yeah, i m concerned about that. i mean, we all have experience, but the fact that any time we have an impact or an accident of this nature that in the ocean, we have some sort of debris as everybody pretty much knows. but from a military expert in accident investigation he said don t be surprised to be surprised. so yeah, mary, the malaysian cabinet agreed to set up an international investigation to look into anything that may have played a role in the plane s disappearance, like airworthiness, operations, is this a step in the right direction, do you believe? oh, no, this is something they should be doing and must be