Good morning. Im carol costello. Thank you for joining me. We begin with the dramatic rescue operation going on right now off south korea for nearly 300 people still missing after a ship sank, at least four people known dead. Helicopter and boat crews have been on the scene plucking passengers from the fridge it waters. Most of the people on board that ferry were High School Students. Wen rescued student said he heard a loud thud and then the ship started to list. He said everyone was ordered to put on life jackets and jump into the water. Another student says hes afraid many of his classmates may still be trapped on board that sinking ship tr ship. Translator some of the students were not able to escape. The ferry started to list, so we asked if we shoulders scape now. The announcement kept telling us to stay still. Im so worried about the other students in our rooms. The ferry left from the port city of incheon and was headed for the resort city of jeju before going down in the yellow sea. Water temperatures in that sea in the 40s. Cnns pauline choiu has more for you. Reporter a desperate rescue after a crowded passenger ferry suddenly began sinking off the coast of south korea. More than 450 people aboard the ferry, 325 High School Students on a class trip to a nearby Resort Island. One student told the korean news network ytn, he heard a loud bump before the ship started to sing. Shortly after the ship issued a distress call, helicopters and boats including a ship from the u. S. Navy seventh fleet scrambled to assist the overturned vessel, rushing to pluck the passengers clinging to rails. These two passengers were lifted to safety in a helicopter basket, while dozens of others were pulled from the water by rescue boats. One passenger told ytn they were told to jump into the sea as the ship began to sink. Within hours the ship was almost completely submerged. Only a small portion of the hull was visible above the water. The weather was clear at the time and authorities are still not clear on what caused the catastrophe. That was pauline choiu reporting. Divers have been trying to get into the search to search for survivors, but they are struggling against strong currents. Well keep you posted. Right now the under water search for flight 370 once again under way. Were waiting for bluefin21 to come back up from the sea after a Technical Glitch forced the submersible to resurface briefly. That would be the second setback in as many days. The submarine scouring the ocean floor as analysis from the first short earned mission this morning finds no debris. Today some 14 planes and 11 ships continue their efforts on the surface including the navys caesar chavez, the only u. S. Ship at the location. We got exclusive access to the only u. S. Ship participating out here as the search heats up both above and below the surface of the indian ocean. An allout push in the search for any scrap of debris from malaysian flight 370. Thats the actual search area . That is one of the search areas. Reporter the skipper of the u. S. Navy supply ship cesar chavez, the only u. S. Ship playing a role in the hunt for the missing plane. What like to be part of this mission that has gripped the worlds attention . First of all, were proud to play a part. Theres many moving parts on this mission. Reporter another moving part in this search for debris, the highly sophisticated u. S. Surveillance and reconnaissance p8. New video shows the plane in action capable of taking highresolution pictures over enormous areas and detecting tiny pieces of anything floating. Australias hmas, success is one of several ships investigating on the oceans surface what the p8 sees from the air. Now with the cesar chavez in play, the search on the surface and beneath it can continue nonstop. Youre here for the foreseeable future. Were here as long as were tasked by seventh fleet. Its a 247 operation. Reporter like a massive floating 7eleven, the cesar chavez already taking on thousands of gallons of food and supplies before another thousand mile threeday journey to keep the searchers searching. Miguel marquez, cnn, aboard the u. S. Naval ship cesar chavez. That ship will be leaving the port just south of perth where it is to head back out to resupply the australian ships searching the surface of the ocean. It can easily switch direction and start assisting the ships searching under the water on bluefin thats gone down for the third time. Its down under the water right now last we heard. We expect if everything goes according to plan, they have had problems with it. It will surface in the very early mornings here in australia and then we will take about four hours to download everything they have there and see if they found anything. Carol . Miguel marquez reporting live from australia. Joining me now mary ski ave. Know cnn aviation analyst and rob mccallum, an ocean search specialist who led an expedition to the titanic wreckage. Good morning to both of you. Good morning. Good morning. Mary, bluefin21 came up early today with technical problems, then went back down into the water to finish its mission. I assume all is well . Well, we can assume so. The fact that bluefin knows to come up when it has problems. What we wouldnt want to have happen is it damages itself in doing things it shouldnt be doing. So the fact that it keeps coming up and they retool it and send it back down, as long as its working, thats a good sign. They are getting pictures. Thats what they wanted. They want those sonar pictures so they can see whats down there. So far, so good. Although the sonar pick tires have shown nothing of interest so far. But rob, we know the water is deep in the search area. A geologist told reuters that the sea floor is covered with an ooze, a kind of sludge. He says thats a good thing because any shiny object would show up clearly. Do you agree with that . Thats correct. The sea floor for north american viewers anyway who have just come out of a winter, its very much like a hardpacked snow with a light dusting of powder on top. For sonar searching, what youre getting is youre throwing sound out into the water and its being bounced back off objects and returned to back, in this case bluefin. Depending on what the sound is hitting, it gives a different kind of return. It will enable searchers to distinguish between the natural terrain, the mud if you like, and anything human made like aircraft parts. Its no surprise to you, rob, that nothing has been found so far . No. Obviously the search controller is very confident in these pinger locations. They are deploying only one asset and theyre focused very hard on these pinger locations. So well see. Its a big area out there. Bluefin is right at the edge of its operational limits. Its a waitandsee game. Mary, the air, the search by air for debris will soon come to an end, maybe come to an end tomorrow. Is there any real reason it should continue . At this point anything any debris that did float has been so widely dissipated by the currents, its far away from the location of the pings and, you know, theres no guarantee they would find anything if they kept going on because theres just no way of knowing where it could be at this point. Its taxing on all the assets, the resources and the personnel. Soon, like i said, if bluefin can find anything down there, this mission is going to change dramatically. They need to be retooling and getting their assets in place to do that kind of a job which would be eventually a recovery operation. So, no, i agree with angus houston. Its time to switch the focus and to concentrate on the under sea search. Rob, you heard what mary said. The mission is getting taxing. In fact, its been going on for 40 days now. The operation is also getting quite expend zich. Listen to angus houston, the search chief. Its very expensive. And all of the countries that are contributing to this are running up big costs. I think the World Community should be very appreciative to those countries for their contribution. This will probably go down as one of the most expensive searches in history. At what point, rob, do you think they should begin to scale back the operation . You know, not for a long time yet. I think that youll start to see a throttling back on the search for debris, but i think that the under water search will continue for a long time because theres an intense drive to solve this mystery, both from an aviation safety perspective on which the entire industry rests, but also because, as humans, we are mystified as to how this can happen. Theres a lot of people watching this and a lot of people very interested in the outcome. Rob mccallum, mary schiavo, thanks for your insight, as always. Still to come in the newsroom, a country on the brink of civil war. Tanks roll through the streets of ukraine. Thousands of Russian Troops wait at the border. Will the United States get involved, even more involved than it already is as in troops . Well talk about that next. [announcer] play closegood and close. Help keep teeth clean and breath fresh with beneful healthy smile snacks. With soft meaty centers and teeth cleaning texture,its dental that tastes so good. Beneful healthy smile food and snacks. And his new boss told him two things cook what you love, and save your money. Joe doesnt know it yet, but hell work his way up from busser to waiter to chef before opening a restaurant specializing in fish and game from the great northwest. Hell start investing early, hell find some good people to help guide him, and hell set money aside from his first day of work to his last, which isnt rocket science. Its just common sense. From td ameritrade. The struggle between ukraine and groups of pro russian supporters have the former soviet republic teetering on the brink of civil war. Ukrainian troops have been spotted in towns and cities near the eat earn border of ukraine and russia, some supporting ukraine. This one was carrying flying russian flags. Weve been getting in a lot of dramatic pictures, including these from a town in Eastern Ukraine about 100 miles from russias border. This is a local risking his life to keep tanks from getting further into a town called slavyansk. This is amateur video. We cant confirm. It looks like the man tries to stop the tanks using his hands. Then you see him laying down in front of the tank. As far as we know, hes okay. Slavyansk is one of several towns seeing violence. Take a look at the map. Up risings are taking place up and down Eastern Ukraine, all about 100 miles from where Russian Troops have amassed at the border between Eastern Ukraine and western russia. Phil black is in ukraine. He has more. Reporter breaking overnight, ukraine fighting back as conflict intensifies. According to the ministry of defense, two ukrainian soldiers have been kidnapped by russian extremists. Ukraines acting president saying they have begun an antiterrorist operation aiming to stop attempts to tear ukraine to pieces. For the first time ukraine is using military force. Retaking an airport in the eastern done necessarying region after a reported clash with pro russian gunmen. The operation may continue here in the town of slavyansk where pro russian militants defied kievs demand to give back control over local government buildings. This amateur video reports to show Ukrainian Tanks and one local risking his life to slow their advance. Its unknown whether you crane will try to reclaim government and Police Buildings in as many as ten towns in ukraine, seized by pro russian militants. New video shows pro russian protesters raising the russian flag atop this building in the done necessarying region and tearing the sign off the administration building. Russian president telling chancellor ang ma la merkel that the conflict puts the nation on the brink of civil war. Now nato is upping military presence amid the threat. We will have more planes in the air, more ships on the water and more readiness on the land. Reporter the u. S. Still expressing concern about russians intention in ukraine says theyre preparing a number of responses. We are prepared because of the authorities that we have in the executive orders the president signed to escalate sanctions and other costs if and when russia escalates its actions. Phil black joins us on the phone right now. How much farther can russia escalate its actions, phil . Reporter well, potentially quite a lot. Remember nato believes there are still tens of thousands of russian soldiers pretty close to the border with ukraine ready to move over. Russia has always spoken about its willingness to intervene if it believes russianspeaking peoples lives and rights are at stake. I think thats why theres some hess tans. We are seeing a big military presence from the Ukrainian Military but theyre not moving in, not confronting these pro russian militants and protesters because if they do, theres every chance it could escalate very quickly from that point. Phil black reporting live from Eastern Ukraine this morning. As you can see, the crisis shows no signs of letting up. The situation could still deteriorate. Thats according to retired Army Brigadier general mark kemmet. The word ukraine means border, just like in crow at, the criena is the buffer zone. This is putins buffer zone between russia and the west. He wants to restore that buffer zone. He doesnt want europe up on the gates of russia. Its that simple and the fact that the europeans and the americans are afraid to stand up to putin i think in fact is going to cause things to be far worse than better. How do you stand up to Vladimir Putin. General kemmet says u. S. And european troops need to go to ukraine as a show of force. Its the only thing putin will understand, says the general. Sending in american troops is not a popular option. According to a poll, a majority believe ukraine is in our national interest. But just 7 think the United States should send in troops. So diplomacy is still in the works. Secretary of state john kerry will meet with representatives of the european union. Michelle kosinski at the white house. Any word this morning . Reporter the president is traveling today in the u. S. Were not going to have a briefing situation where we can ask those questions that weve been able to ask over the last few days. There have been many clashes about exactly what you raise, what do you do here . For the past many weeks, the u. S. Hasnt wanted to do anything that seems too invasive into this situation. Anything that would be too provocative. I think it was interesting that what we saw, weve been seeing this incremental moves and sanctions. Its not lost on people out there that this is kind of a quandary. Its easy to say why dont we put people there in terms of troops there, but what would really be the point of that, especially when putin has been making these outrageous moves . Wouldnt that possibly escalate the situation even further . As you mentioned, its a very unpopular move. So then what do you do . What the u. S. Has decided are sanctions basically. Weve been seeing those escalating as russias moves have been escalating. But then the criticism becomes, well, were reacting to what we dont want putin to do and thats what he then does. So what the u. S. Is saying right now yesterday the administration spelled it out further that we dont want to provide lethal military aid to ukraine at this point, but were not ruling out military aid in the form of things like gear, night vision goggles, other elements like that that the white house doesnt want to spell out at this point. They dont want to parse out what they consider military aid and what they consider lethal aid where they draw the line. In terms of sanctions, the white house is now being more i would say possibly aggressive in saying that we are actively considering doing more. So whats the benchmark going to be . Do we wait for putin to make another move . Not necessarily. Diplomacy has been the way to go here. There is that meeting tomorrow. The administration said without sort of clearly spelling it out, lets see what happens tomorrow, lets see how engaged russia really is in diplomacy before we see potentially more severe sanctions, carol. Michelle kosinski reporting live from the white house this morning. Still to come in the newsroom, a new video shows al qaedas top brass in a bold Public Meeting including the Terror Networks top Global Leaders there for all to see. How did the United States miss this . Well talk about that next. You really love, what would you do . [ woman ] id be a writer. [ man ] id be a baker. [ woman ] i wanna be a pie maker. [ man ] i wanna be a pilot. [ woman ] id be an architect. What if i told you someone could pay you and what if that person were you . When you think about it, isnt that what retirement should be, paying ourselves to do what we love . But with so much health care noise, i didnt always watch out for myself. With unitedhealthcare, i get personalized information and rewards for addressing my health risks. But shes still gonna give me a heart attack. Thats health in numbers. Unitedhealthcare. Without standard leather. You are feeling exhilarated with frontwheel drive. You are feeling powerful with a 4cylinder engine. [ male announcer ] open your eyes. To the 6cylinder, 8speed lexus gs. With more standard horsepower than any of its german competitors. This is a wakeup call. A disturbing video has surfaced showing what may be the most dangerous al qaeda members in years. The video shows al qaedas top leaders in a brazen Public Meeting including the groups socalled crown prince. House intelligence chairman mike rogers says this shows just how brazen the group has become. The al qaeda threat today is more diverse and more aggressive with more threats streams than weve seen since even before 9 11. The less pressure you put on them, the more they take that as a victory and believe they can get away with plotting, planning, organizing as you saw there, finance, training, all the things they would need to do to strike a western target, theyre going through that process, including, by the way, bringing very sophisticated people to devise new devices to try to get around security protocols. Cnns Barbara Starr broke the story. She joins us with more from the pentagon. Good morning. Good morning, carol. 100 al qaeda fighters out in the open. It sure doesnt look like al qaeda on the run. Its the largest and most dangerous gatherin