Black boxes of Malaysia Airlines flight 370. He is very specific in that, and he joins australian Prime Minister tony abbott in his certainty. We have very much narrowed down the search area, and we are very confident that the signals that we are detecting are from the black box on mh 370. Were going to get to my interview with commander William Marks in just a minute. First, i want to go to Michael Holmes in perth, australia. Michael, this is a growing sense that theyre getting close to finding this black box. What is the scene there this morning as theyre starting the search there again . Yeah, just after dawn here, erin, on a beautiful perth day and off the coast, the ships have been trawling all night, and continue to now, looking for more pings from the flight data recorders. The aircraft are heading out to join them. Theyll be looking for wreckage on the surface. It is day 36 of this search. Five weeks, hard to believe, but nothing has been found so far. But you heard there the confidence is there that something will be found on or below the surface. Now, the plan at the moment is to continue that search, hope to hear even more pings and narrow the search area down to even further that of course becoming less and less likely with the pinger batteries fading, even by the hour. Of course, important to remember, even if say the wreckage or the data recorders were located even today, the recovery phase has a whole new set of challenges, getting the right vehicles in place and underwater, and dealing with an ocean floor covered in perhaps meters of silt, which can bury debris or very easily hide a data recorder that is no longer pinging. Erin . Thank you very much. And joining me now on the phone is Navy CommanderWilliam Marks of the u. S. 7th neat. He is on board the uss blueridge which is leading the american search effort for flight 370. Commander, good to talk to you this saturday morning. How are you focussing the search today . Were doing well out here in the pacific. And as each day goes on, as the search area is smaller and smaller, especially since even a week ago, were pretty optimistic here. So i do want to stress we are still searching with our tpl, the towed pinger locator. We do want to maximize the use of that. So as long as we can use the tpl to listen in, see if we can get a better picture on that black box, were going to use it. And well go as long as we can until we think the batteries are dead on those things. The important point to remember is before we get the bluefin and side scan sowner, we want to maximize the use of the tpl. So thats what were doing today. And the man who made the pinger on this plane told me that, you know, its only got another couple of days until the battery is dead for sure, maybe three or four at the out. The last ping that i know searchers really think came from a black box is tuesday. Youre now coming into saturday. How long are you going to keep looking if you dont hear a ping before you decide to go to the next step, to put that bluefin the water . Yeah, thats a great question. And thats certainly a decision point. But i really want to stress how critical it is to not put the bluefin 21 in sooner than we need to. Just using the tpl is a slow and deliberate process. So it drags through the water. And it listens in for those pings from a black box. And thats a pretty slow process. We can tow it about as quickly as a person walks. Well, once you get the bluefin in there, its actually taking a picture of the bottom of the ocean floor using sonar and cameras. So imagine walking but then every feet stopping to take a picture of the ground. So that is a much slower, more deliberate, methodical process. Once that starts, were in it for a good chunk of time. So we really dont want to start that until we have to. Right. And anything we can do to even narrow this sector down even a little bit will be hugely beneficial for using the bluefin. Now, commander, australias Prime Minister tony abbott came out and said directly, look, he is confident that what you have heard so far is a black box from this plane. Do you share that view . Yeah, i do. For a couple of reasons. One is it was a we are detecting very continuous pings coming through in a manner consistent with exactly what you would expect from a black box. Weve ruled out there was anything unnatural or anything from commercial shipping or anything like that. And then the fact that weve had four verifiable hits on these is optimistic. Now, they were all quite in the same frequency range. And there is a good deal of distance between those 10 or 15 kilometers. But still, you know, sound is a unique property here in water. And it could easily travel that far. So i agree with the Prime Minister. We are optimistic. All right, commander, thank you. Good luck. Well talk to you again soon. Certainly. And i want to bring in our own Richard Quest. All right. So we have the breaking news here. The command versaillesing yes, im confident this is it. We have checked any other sources, not just natural source, but whether it was a box from a commercial ship . No. This is it. Yeah. Yeah. Well we had this from Angus Houston and the australians. Everyone was saying did he get ahead of himself. Did he get too far . The americans are now agreeing. The australian string of experts said credible, stable, 1. 106, the right frequency. Their exact word, it is consistent with a flight data recorder. So are they going to be able to get it out . That is the bottom line. Let us not confuse what tony abbott said with what hes now got to do. He said he is very confident that its a black box. Right. We now know that. He didnt say how, you know, we know where it is. He did say its within a certain so many kilometers or within some kilometers. Right. Thats optimistic. That might have been a stretch further than others are prepared to go. But weve always known the difficult bit is now going to be getting down this and taking that search area that houston has got smaller and smaller in looking for it. And of course figuring out exactly what happened here which is what were going to be talking about next. We have continuing coverage of the breaking news tonight. Authorities now focusing on the pilots and the crew. Youve known that a bit. But theyve changed the tone a bit. And a man who knows the pilots and the crew are going to join our conversation next. Plus, official giving contradicting information and misestimates out of malaysia on this. Who is to blame . And an exclusive look at the cutting edge tech being used to find mh 370. S karen and jeremia. 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Joe, now police say theyre questioning more people who may be linked to the case. So what have you learned about that . Well, erin, statements have been taken from over 205 people. And we know from speaking with the home minister earlier this week a little more who they have been talking to, including families of the pilots, families of the crew, the staff of Malaysia Airlines, crowd handlers. We also know theyre talking to caterers, almost anybody who came into contact with that plane, the work is continuing. Last week the number of people interviewed was about 170. So since then, we can extrapolate from that they have interviewed an additional 35 people, erin. Joe, its also confusing here. Last week Malaysian Police said look, all 227 passengers have been cleared from suspicion, but they were still looking at the captain and the crew. Today the act transportation minister, a colorful character told sky news, quote, everyone on board remains under suspicion. So theyre saying two totally different things. Right. True. There have been several examples of mixed messages. The transportation minister suggested they havent ruled anybody out. However, the home minister just said the other day that they are not focusing on family members of the passengers. I think its all a reflection of the sort of sprawling investigation we have. And frankly, more facts are really needed to refine where this investigation goes from here. Theyre hoping finding the black boxes will actually do that, erin. All right. Thank you very much, joe, reporting live from kuala lumpur. Were going to be joined in just a moment by a man who knew the pilot as well as members of the flight crew on this plane. Obviously crucial perspective there. Richard quest is also with me along with our aviation analyst geoff weiss. At least what we know about how this plane was taken off course we have known one thing that then becomes another thing. So what we know may not be what happened. Caveat for everybody watching. But what we know right now, who could be responsible for this at this point besides one of the pilots . Well, the way that that plane was taken off course and the way that it was subsequently flown way point to way point, apparently deviating in such a way that it would avoid radar seems to have been very clever, very purposely flown with a lot of savvy and sophistication with the way planes are flown and the way Airline Operations are conducted. Perhaps there was someone else on board who was able to fly a plane in that kind of way. We dont know. Apparently all these passengers have been cleared. So suspicion, again, falls on the pilot. Two completely opposing things from the malaysian government. I want to bring in the president of malaysias National Union of flight attendants. He worked with captain Zaharie Ahmad shah and the crew. Good to have you with us. I appreciate you take 00 the time. What can you tell us in terms of anyone you knew and the pilots on this plane, and what they were like as the investigation still seems to focus on those individual. Yeah, hi, erin. Basically, i think we are currently right now looking at some family members and also the crew who we have spoken to. And the last time that i spoke to them was about a couple of days ago. And basically, ive worked with some of the crewmembers before. So i know captain zaharie also, because we were flying colleagues before. And we did a couple of flights. And basically, also some of the flight attendants who naturally work with us together on several flights. Do you think, ismail, that any of these people could have been responsible . Obviously people are talking about the captain simply because he was the captain. And a lot of focus has gone there. There has been no evidence at this point indicating he was involved. You know him. What would you say . Captain zaharie as i know and the rest of our crewmembers, we used to work together. And i believe that captain zaharie is a very simple guy. He is very professional during his work. And being a commander, he always takes charge of his flight. I dont see any problems working with him, neither any one of our crewmembers. Weve never had any problems working with anybody so far. And last couple of years that i flew with him and, you know, weve spoken a few things. But its kind of that we see each other and we talk about normal things. And thats about it, you know. Nothing strange about anything. Interesting you say he is a simple guy. What do you think about the new rules that have been imposed . Because there was a report that there are new rules after that incident that would not allow anybody to be alone in the cockpit. And that was a change in rules. Some people said well, is that because there is speculation that somebody in the cockpit was responsible for what happened to this plane. What is your response to that . Yeah, i think its a natural thing. Every airline has got security measures that is undertaken. And basically, what i see is that when the airline impose security measures where crewmembers are supposedly to become barriers to the cockpit. So, you know, anybody who wants to come in, they have got to go through the flight attendants. And the flight attendants will get the response from the pilots. And the pilots will give the go ahead. So thats about it. You know, basically, thats about what we see. And its kind of natural right now that they heighten up the security. And what we are just saying is i think its good for everybody to discuss more measures than just to come out with a simple policy, which we look at it in that way. And richard, what do you make about what ismail is just saying here, that captain zaharie shah is a simple man. Its what weve heard all along that he was good man, he was a well liked man, he was a man who was respected enormously. Yes. May i ask a quick question . Yes. Ismail, this is richard. Hi, its Richard Quest in new york. Quick question. The morale now for your colleagues Malaysia Airlines, bearing in mind the enormous weight of this investigation and the stress of it all . Yeah, i think everybody is, you know, a little bit edgy and also a little bit curious about what is going on. But people are talking about it. But thats kind of normal to me right now because we know that things not as what its supposed to be. But we are just waiting and just hoping that things can come by and more answers will come in the next coming weeks. Ismail, before you go, i know you said captain zaharie was a good man. Youre saying he was a simple man. Do you know anything about anyone else on the crew that you could say anything about or about his copilot . Are you asking me about the copilot . Yes. The copilot is a pretty young guy. I never flew with him before. But i flew with a lot of the other crewmembers. Not really with the copilot. All right. Well, ismail, thank you very much for taking the time this morning. We really appreciate it. Thanks again. And still to come, the next step in the search for missing flight 370. We have an exclusive demonstration of how thats going to work. And the mistakes and missteps so far in this investigation. Why are there so many mixed messages . Ups is a global company, but most of our employees live in the same communities that we serve. People here know that our operations have an impact locally. Were using more natural gas vehicles than ever before. The trucks are reliable, thats good for business. But they also reduce emissions, and thats good for everyone. 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Ocuvite has a unique formula not found in your multivitamin to help protect your eye health. Now thats a pill worth taking. [ male announcer ] ocuvite. Help protect your eye health. Breaking news in the hunt for Malaysia Airlines flight 370. We are just learning there have been no confirmed acoustic detects over the past 24 hours. Its significant because at most the black boxes only have a couple more days of battery life. They havent heard from them in days. However, a u. S. Naval commander is telling c