analyzing all the evidence. and grieving pilot. new information about the plane s captain, including his flight record and a very personal loss only days ago. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. wolf blitzer is off today. i m brianna keilar. you re in the situation room. this is cnn breaking news. we have breaking news this hour. the search for a missing airasia passenger plane is due to get back under way and expand to cover four additional areas. it s about 6:00 a.m. tuesday in indonesia just after daybreak. it s been two full days since air controllers lost contact with the airbus jet with 162 people on board. local authorities now are formally asking the u.s. for help. the pentagon says it s ready to assist possibly with equipment to search from the air and on or below the water surface. the aircraft was last detected over the java sea about halfway
grow more hopeful that they are closing in on a find. we are at this point much more optimistic than we were even a day or so ago and then certainly many more times optimistic than we were a week ago. reporter: the hunt for night 370 now focused on the smallest area yet. it s about 2200 square miles, or roughly the size of west virginia. that s about 25% smaller than it was the day before. and has narrowed dramatically from a few weeks ago. as investigators pour over the latest clues, cnn is learning more about malaysia flight 370 s final moments. investigators now believe it was indeed the plane s captain, zaharie ahmad shah who said the final words from the cockpit, good night, malaysian 370. we re also getting a new
intending to for whatever reason ditch the plane in the indian ocean. now, the bottom line here is according to this report investigators essentially creating data in the absence of data. all this means is that indonesian radar didn t pick up an airplane. how can this play into the investigation? malaysia is still saying this is a criminal investigation. last week they said they cleared all 227 passengers. since then the investigation has centered on the cabin crew including the plane s captain and first officer. malaysian officials say investigators including some from the fbi forensically examined the captain s home simulator but at this point they say that hasn t turned up clues. seems like very little has. let s get more on this. dan hampton is the offer of a book coming out soon called
reporting. private individuals can sue in civil court for libel and slander. though a practicing attorney doesn t see the government escalating tensions with the media. you see these statements, which perhaps it is political in nature. you have to show that we re not just taking it, we will give it back if need be. whether they should actually take that action, do be completely honest, i doubt that they will take that cost. reporter: legal issues aside the politics of flight 370 are extremely sensitive here, especially when it comes to the plane s captain. he s been described as a supporter of the country s opposition leader who defends the pilot s reputation but has harshly contribute ski lly crit government s handling of the investigation. but when they continue to conceal information, i have grounds to be more suspicious. reporter: in response to such
some time, and as i said, the intensity of our search and the magnitude of our operations is increasing, not decreasing. the teams are still focusing on an enormous area in the indian ocean. about the size of the state of wyoming. that is kuala lumpur and here is the search area. investigators say radar information suggests that the jet went down somewhere around here. but more than a thousand people in ships and planes have not found a single piece of this wreckage, and, frankly, there s no signs they re about to. a gabrielle is with us. the malaysian governmenting changing the story. this means something, especially since minute of this investigation has been centered on the plane s captain. now, it was previously reported we re going to put it up on the screen but malaysia previously said the final communication was, all right, good night. now they re saying it was actually, good night, malaysian 370.