Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room. Were following multiple, critical new developments in the search for flight 370, now missing for five weeks. Among the latest developments, searchers are searching the ocean with the bluefin21. With daylight breaking in the area, the air search is about to resume. Also, cnn has now learned that the first officers cell phone was on around the time the plane vanished. Experts call that unusual. The phone was detected searching for a service by a malaysian se cell tower. And an oil slick was discovered near where signals of the possible black box were detected. Our analysts are covering every angle of the story. They are around the world covering stories only as cnn can. Lets go straight to perth, australia. Cnns will ripley is with us on the new phase in this search. What is happening right now, will . Reporter its 5 00 a. M. Here in perth, wolf, and were following several developments occurring today. The bluefin21, the submersible, is about halfway through its 24hour mission. Its scanning for any possible debris. Its not expected to find debris on day one but we wont know for sure until the data comes back on the ship. By this time tomorrow we would have more answers about what is down there. Meanwhile, were about an hour away from the air search. There is new questions about how long that air search will continue before the shift continues to the underwater search. Tonight with hope fading that the black boxes are still sending signals, this bluefin21 is mapping the underwater landscape. The extreme conditions will test the limits of the navys bluefin21. People need to have patience. Reporter the move comes nearly a week since searchers heard pings coming from the flight data and voice recorders. With the batteries on the pingers all but certainly drained, the australian search Team Announced it would stop listening for pings and start looking for evidence underwater. I would caution you that the deploy of the autonomous underwater vehicle will result in the detection of the aircraft wreckage. It may not. However, this is the best lead we have and it must be pursued vigorously. Reporter tonight, investigators say they spotted an oil slick discovered in the search zone, samples being tested to determining that chances of finding debris on the surface after a Tropical Cyclone sending anything that was floating on the surface under water. With one civil aircraft and 15 ships assisting in mondays several, the parameters are narrowing. Still, with so much time having passed since the plane went missing, the surface investigation is now expected to begin wrapping up. Officials are now suggesting that the organized search will keep its focus beneath the ocean surface. We could see the air search tapering off but the bluefin21 has a lot of work expected ahead and its expected to be slow and grueling and very important for the families of the 239 people. Well said, will. Thank you. Were learning a baffling new twist that is raising new questions about the planes disappearance that raises questions in the cockpit. Our pamela brown is working this part of the story for us. Tell us what you have learned. Wolf, the information could be telling. The copilots phone was not turned off and it was on after the plane full of passengers disappeared. Its got aviation experts and officials believing that this opens up even more questions about what was happening in the cockpit. Sources tell cnn that fariq ab hamids phone was on. Information cnn has learned that malaysian authorities gave to the u. S. A while ago. It would be very rare, in my opinion, to have someone with a cell phone on in the cockpit. Its never supposed to be on at all. Its part of every check list that im familiar with. Reporter sources say that malaysian authorities told the u. S. That a cell tower in penang, malaysia, roughly 200 miles from where the plane turned around, picked up a ping from fariqs cell phone. He could have tried to do something with the phone. We dont know. The interesting thing about that is no other phone was connected to it. Its just specifically his cell phone. Theres no evidence that the first officer tried to make a call with a phone. On sunday, malaysias transport minister did not deny the possibility. As far as i know, like i said, that would be in the realm of the splits and when the time comes, that would be revealed. I dont want to speculate at the moment. Reporter when the plane first went missing, authorities said millions of cell phone records were searched, looking for evidence that calls had been made from the plane, but turned up nothing. Still, it only adds to the evidence that the plane turned westward from its planned paddle and that the plane was likely falling low enough for a cell tower to pick up the signal. It does make they think that it was perhaps lower than the 35,000 feet speculated because it did make a connection. Typically theres not even time to do that. But they were just high enough and there were no long period of time. Wolf, what this information doesnt tell us, according to u. S. Officials, is a motive of who was alive and who was not at the time that the cell tower detected the copilots phone. The aircraft never had a cell phone system installed. Wolf . Pamela brown, stay with us. I want to bring in the rest of our panel. Our aviation analyst, former ntsb managing director peter goelz and tom fuentes. So peter, what does it say to you that one cell phone was on, this one belonging to the copilot in the cockpit but apparently no other signals were picked up by any other cell phones . It really is intriguing. What was going on . If the copilot had followed the check list and turned off his phone as the plane taxied out, why did he turn it back on . I think, boy, this is intriguing but it does confirm further that there was something going on in that cockpit. Because its very, very strange. Youve got to admit, tom, that they pick up one cell phone out of 239 people on that plane, one cell phone is turned on . Right. Thats true, wolf. I just learned about 20 minutes ago from a malaysian source that the police obtained the phone records of both pilots the very first week right away when the plane went missing and the record shows that no calls were attempted or made or received during the period following the takeoff and they are saying it might be possible for some other company to pick up a roaming signal they are just positive, though, that the captain and copilot did not send or receive a phone call once that plane was in the air. Pamela, why are we learning about this now, week six of this . Malaysians had handed that information over to u. S. Investigators a while ago and there had been some reporting over the weekend insinuating that a phone call had been made. I want to reiterate that this was information, again, coming from the malaysians. They could be privy to other information that u. S. Investigators dont know about but at this time it was believed that the copilots phone is the only one that connected with that tower. Because you know and all of us know who fly peter let me go to you, whenever they say turn off your cell phones, most people do that but a lot of people dont for whatever reason. Its really change that only one cell phone was picked up. That raises a lot of questions. What about the other cell phones . Is there an answer to that . Well, there isnt an answer and youre right, wolf. People surveys have shown that upwards 30 of phones on planes are not turned off and devices are not shut down as requested. So it raises further questions on the mystery of what was going on in this cockpit. Youve worked with them, worked with them when you were at the fbi, you still have your contacts over there. They are really slow in releasing these details. Sometimes they come out way, way after the fact why does that happen . Why cant they be completely transparent and share the details with all of us . This part of the case, thats just the way they are over there. They are not transparent and when theyve worked with another agency or told other people about what they were looking at. So this is not direct information from them, from at the official level that there was a roaming charge, you know, shown for this phone at that time. And the question about why there were no other phones is another good question. But again, a cell tower, if it picked up. Usually thats relayed back to at some point back to the main phone company which has that account with that phone number and the information is this phone was shown to be roaming on such and such of network at such and such city and you see that, i see that on my bills when i travel internationally whether i make a call or not. When police obtained the records early on, they dont see any roaming charges and only see that a phone call was made by those two phones. Pamela, i want to be clear on this. Youre talking to a lot of sources and theres no suspicion as a result simply of the cell phone trying to make a connection that the copilot may have done anything wrong . Right. At this point, nothing is being ruled in or out. Theres not necessarily any additional suspicion as a result of this information. Again, this was malaysian data shared with u. S. Investigators and as one of my sources said, he could have been trying to use his phone. We just dont know. Just because there was a ping or a detection from that cell tower doesnt mean he would have been able to make a connection if he was trying to use his phone. Theres still a big question mark as to whether or not he was. But as tom said, theres nothing in those phone records indicating that a call was made from the first officer, the captain or anyone else on that pla plane. How much confidence do they have about the information that they are receiving from the malaysian authorities . I think they have a lot of confidence. Ive spoke to many folks from the ntsb in the last few weeks and they feel that they have been fully informed, that the information has been accurate and that the malaysians are digging in to get this investigation concluded. But boy, it is an uphill struggle. It certainly is. Guys, stand by. Were going to have a lot more on this story coming up, including a look at a u. S. Robot, a sub sub that is digging deeper. 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The hunt for malaysian flight 370 entered an important new phase today. Brian todd is joining us with a drone searchers and operators who run this. Its a very difficult job for that vehicle but they say its very much up to the task. Its manufacturer calls it bluefin21. For the people who run it, its basically a smart torpedo. Reporter and right now it may be the best remaining hope for finding wreckage from Malaysia Airlines flight 370. We were given exclusive access behind the scenes at phoenix international, the company that runs the bluefin, to see just how it works. While it may launch from the side of the a search ship, the bluefin is operated by Remote Control with help from a satellite. Its job, not to listen for pings but to map the ocean floor and look for debris. To do that, it can use two different payloads which have to be swapped out. This particular payload section is the acoustic section. Reporter first, the bluefin uses side scan sonar and an echo sounder, it detects sound waves off the ocean floor that are not natural. If those are picked up, the bluefin can be brought to the surface. The Sonar Technology gets taken out and hightech cameras are put in. Its a highdefinition black and white camera capable of three frames per second. Reporter together they can create a detailed mosaic of the ocean floor. Investigators are confident that if wreckage is down there, the bluefin will find it. The technology is good enough that we can resolve something that is good enough as small as a microwave, perhaps even smaller. Reporter but its not an easy or fast process. It takes the vehicle two hours to dive to the bottom, 16 hours to search a section of the floor and then another four hours to download and analyze the data collected. That means just one mission of the bluefin21 takes a the least 24 hours to complete, meaning the search could drag on. Given the size of the search area, that could take six, eight weeks. Its a weeks and months type of problem to cover that amount of area. At the end of that period, if there is a successful find, the next step would be to send deep diving vehicles, rovs, to find the black boxes. Phoenix international has manipulator arms that can do that that picked up wreckage from air france 447 in the atlantic. And that was more than 12,000 feet below the surface. Wolf . A complicated mission. On a typical mission for the bluefin, is any of it preprogrammed or do they do it freelance style . They do a little bit of both. Its got a program to run a certain distance, a certain length and height off the ocean floor. For other certain movemens, they speak to it acoustically. They have to bring the data up and analyze it and then send it back down. Good explanation, brian todd. Thank you. If the searchers are right, the wreckage for flight 370 may be under three miles of water. Were joined by oceanographer ellen preager joining us from miami. Was it right to send the bluefin down now and give up on the batteries for the two black boxes . Well, i think the team really didnt have a choice. At this point, if those pings are really coming from the black box, they need to start looking for the wreckage on the bottom if they are not going to get any more signals from the black boxes. How good is this bluefin21 in finding lets say theres a black box there in this area that is a relatively small area that it is, how good would it be in finding one of those black boxes . What it is really going to be looking for is any sort of wreckage. Its not going to look specifically for the black box. What the side scan sonar will do is create a map of the bottom. If you were looking at the land from above it and at the topography of the land, think about that under water. Does anything look nonnatural, manmade . And then if you can start to find a debris field, then within that debris field or wreckage you would look for the black box. So they are really just looking for something that looks manmade on the bottom. Are you surprised in this day and age that they cant send those signals life, stream it or whatever back to the surface, theyve got to bring it back and send four hours reviewing the data . You know, wolf, thats one of the most frustrating things looking at the ocean, especially in the deep ocean. Were pretty far behind Space Technology and you cant stream data from a vehicle. Yeah, just think about how much faster this process would be if we could do it. Are you hopeful that they are going to find something within the next few weeks based on what you know about the bottom, the floor of this ocean, where it is right now . You know, for those poor families waiting to hear something, i sure hope it is. But we dont know. I mean, if you run into technical problems, you have weather delays, ill tell you, anybody who works in the ocean knows that things go wrong. So i sure hope for the families that its sooner rather than later but it could be a very long time. You know, just the process of what they call it, mowing the lawn, just creating that mosaic and then youve got to send a camera down and then youve got to start going down there and recover the wreckage. At those depths, its a really difficult job. How much of a problem is the silt on the floor of the ocean . Well, you know, it could be a problem or it could be good. Its a problem if the debris and wreckage has sunk into the silt and covered it up. But on the other hand, ive been a geologist for a while and if you find disturbance in the silt, thats something that you could find on the side scan sonar. Thinking that you had an asteroid impact, obviously not that big, but on a miniature scale you might create disturbance around the wreckage and you could probably see that in the side scan sonar. So bad if its covered up, good if theres clues that there is something manmade down there. So it might even be useful. This oil slick that they found it could be. This oil slick that they spotted, they are taking a look to see if it could be oil coming from this airliner. That shouldnt be very hard to determine once they get some connect cal analysis. Right . Thats my guess. My guess is they have taken a water sample and they are going to bring it to a lab and they are going to look for the hydrocarbons in the oil, evidence of jet fuel. Obviously the chemical composition of jet fuel, the hydrocarbons are going to be different than boat fuel. They are looking for the signature of jet fuel in that water sample. So bottom line right now, ellen, give me your analysis of where we go from here . Well, i think its a waiting game. Weve got to wait and see what comes up on the side scan sonar and theres a great deal of people working with the technology and they are going to be good at producing these images and looking at what looks natural and what you doesnt. That can be a very hard thing to do, especially if the bottom topography is rough and rugged. Once they start looking at the images, its just going to take time. Hopefully its down there and again get the family some news. Hopefully youre right. Ellen, lets wait and see. Appreciate it very much, ellen prager, appreciate the challenges that await this search. Coming up, well see how the passengers families are reacting about the search for the missing jet. Up next, new and violent developments unfolding right now in ukraine. President of the United States calling the president of russia. What happened in that phone