because we have pretty good coverage, satellite coverage of the region and because of the nature of what is going on over there, we know what is going on. let s assume if we know that it was a missile where it came from. when does the united states government start talking about it? i don t know the answer to that. and it s going to be purely a function of what the politics of international politics. let s say we know unequivocally that it came from the russian side of the border, let s say, for the sake of amusement. when do we stop talking about it? when does the government say, hey, this is the case. i ll go to you, jim cavanaugh, about this. but when do we do that? you have the government saying
convin coincidence of it being a malaysian airliner after what happened last year with the malaysian airliner. these airliners don t just arbitrarily just fall out of the sky generally speaking. it would have had to be a catastrophic event on board. but officials are also intrigued by the early release from malaysian the airline itself that the cabin crew apparently was reporting an event on board. was that event, you know, did they get struck by a missile and that was the event? some sort of terrorist activity on board? at this point it s all speculation. people here are cautioning that it s too way too early to come to any conclusions at this point. let s talk a lit about the satellite coverage because one of the most important facts that went into the decisions that were taken yesterday by treasury, the white house, the nsc on sanctions was proof that they claimed that in fact russia
important technical change in the way aircraft navigate in the future. we ll move from radar based system, because radars don t reach into the oceans to a satellite based system where we have total satellite coverage of the globe. so let me get peter goals to weigh in on that. a lot of the airlines, developing all of the equipment they need to get wi-fi for passengers, tv for passengers but it s sort of technology, there s a company in toront that builds black boxes with live streaming but they don t use it. it doesn t make any sense to me. the carriers are not going to put it in unless forced and they are both right. they cannot act international civil aviation organization. they cannot act. to top it off we don t have an official representative there. that post is gone unfilled since december. so when they meet next month, we won t have anyone
most remote part of the world, where satellite coverage, it s not like the transatlantic where there is an enormous amount of satellite coverage. yes. and then you have the other option which is to bring us back to reality, the plane goes into the water and sinks relatively fast. quickly. and the elts don t work in deep water. that would explain it then. so now let s talk about the issue quickly of the altitude. so there have been various reports. you take them all with a grain of salt because all have been coming from military radar which was not near the plane. but this is again hearing 39,000 feet. 39,000 feet down to 4,000. using the words controlled on both ends. again, we know things change. but let s assume this ends up being accurate what the malaysian authorities are saying. controlled to 39, control to 4, what do you take away from it? here is the bottom line with that. it s really very simple. if the plane went from 39,000 feet down to 4,000 feet over about 30 mi
this collection with this satellite sensor that shows off the debris. and this really is definitely a big plus point. hopefully they ll be able later on today to collect or be at the debris field. so then they can start physically calculating the route back and combine with the other data, they ll be able to get closer to searching for the plane. 3:30 in the morning there. i know talking to reporters on the ground, they say a couple more hours before they send the planes out to figure out where precisely this is. but you know, we had talked earlier, leo, about satellite coverage of the area, the southern indian ocean. let me show this. this is the google earth image. it is now about two hours old. all these little dots around the world are little satellites. you said there s adequate satellite coverage down there. you also seemed optimistic that perhaps they re getting close. so given this picture which