more than 2,000 miles, really off the coast of western australia is reunion island where we are now where the supposed debris was found. many people saying that it could be could, in fact be the missing mh370 flight that has been one of the biggest aviation mysteries in history. just to give you a bit of detail about that. australian transport safety officials say it s not inconsistent with drift modeling. that s gyres and currents so that s what they are expecting. it is within their search area and not inconsistent with the search area they are covering. but it is not an exact science. it has a lot to do with surface currents wind direction and how an object floats in the water. here s what we know so far, john. mh370, the wreckage found, we do not know for sure at this point. the prime minister of malaysia stating that it is very likely to be the boeing 777 that s
16 months ago. phillip wood was among the 239 aboard mh370 and sarah is joining us now. after 500 days to get this news of a likely piece of debris what was your initial reaction? well, on the one hand i really don t want it to be part of 370 because that way we can still keep hope out that it wasn t an ocean crash. but on the other hand i think we re all pretty exhausted by the process and need a little bit of closure at this point. yeah i can imagine. this is a very trying time. and there have been so many false starts and false claims along the way. i can imagine that you probably want to say or stay cautiously optimistic but somewhat skeptical. yeah skeptical would be the better word because how can you be optimistic about such confirmation of bad news. but i m very glad that it s in french territory because at least an independent country without too much skin in the game is looking at it.
the families of those lost on the flight. now officials from all over the world are headed to reunion island to get a look at this piece of debris. we could learn more over the next 24 hours. mary and richard, thanks so much. we ll get back to that with the developments as they come in. meanwhile, donald trump making his first overseas trip and firmly establishing himself as the republican frontrunner in 2016. there s a brand new quinnipiac national poll showing trump head and shoulders ahead of the republican presidential pack at this point. his controversial comments not hurting him, including when he angered many after describing mexicans that come to the u.s. illegally as criminals and rapists. so what s the plan for immigration reform? we ll ask dana bash who sat down with donald trump one-on-one. fascinating interview. immigration is the issue that propelled him initially with the conservative base. so now that he s doing so well, the questions are, what will he
david is a director of special projects at the oceangraphic institution. he led the efforts to find air france 447. nice to see both of you this morning. such an important day. mary tell us what your thoughts were when you heard that this piece of debris was found off the coast of madagascar? well, my initial thoughts were there were two of the missing malaysian plane, but there was also another crash in the area back in 2009 but that was an airbus. so from the hearing of that piece of plane being found, i thought, well, at this point it s kind of a 50/50 chance. and with the news yesterday that boeing said it was consistent with the 777, that was highly significant because the 777 was such a unique airplane when first certified to fly back in 1995. it was completely redesigned from previous planes and it was computer designed. so that would be unique in the 777 being a unique plane. and there were only four
absence of even confirmation of a crash, how do you not hold out hope? i mean how could you just walk away from the potential, however small it is that some miracle has happened? stranger things have happened in this world. so you know at least a crash confirmation would let us know that the plane was in the water and highly unlikely there would be survivors. so that would give a point of closure. but we still need to find the wreckage and still need to have dna confirmation. and i understand the mixed emotion about that debris. whether it is wonderful to know that finally there could be closure and wonderful is such a horrible word to use, but i understand the mixed emotions and many of the viewers will too. thank you so much on such a hard day. thank you for joining us today. you re welcome. we re going to keep asking those questions. thank you. our heart goes out to her. a new poll gives a clear sign