Malaysia Releases First Report on Flight 370
COSTELLO: This morning finally Malaysia's government made public its first report on that missing plane's final known moments. Also a new version of audio from the final moments in the cockpit. CNN's Will Ripley joins us now from Kuala Lumpur. And CNN's Rene Marsh is live in Washington with more. Rene, first of all, tell us about this audio. Let us hear it.</s>RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, we're 55 days in and we now have new clean versions of the air traffic control tapes which were first played for the families on Monday. But the tapes were officially released to everyone today. So you're about to hear the final communication between controllers and Flight 370. Now, when you hear them say "Flight Level 350," they're referring to an altitude of 35,000 feet which was their assigned altitude. So let's take a listen.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Flight 370, we are ready request flight level three five zero.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mas 370 is cleared to Beijing via PIBOS a departure six thousand feet squawk to one five seven.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Beijing PIBOS. A 6,000 feet squawk 2157, 370. Thank you.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: MAS 370, welcome over to --</s>MARSH: All right so again this is the clearest that we've had of this audio so far. So let's take advantage of that and let's just play now what has become very well known, those final words again for you, the two final words, "Good Night Malaysian 370." We're going to play that for you two more times. Keep in mind, investigators are interested in two things. One, who is speaking? Was it the captain or the first officer? And are there any signs of stress in the person's voice? So they will be listening to the tapes just like we are. So let's hear those final words one more time.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Malaysian 370, contact Ho Chi Minh 120 decimal 9, good night.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good night Malaysian 370.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Malaysian 370, contact Ho Chi Minh 120 decimal 9, good night.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good night Malaysian 370.</s>MARSH: All right so you heard it there. I mean when you listen to it, you listen to it back to back there, Carol, and everything sounded normal at this point. You didn't hear any stress in the voice. Of course, this is what investigators are going to be doing. Replaying it, listening for any anomalies. Did they hear anything that piques their interest? But when you just heard that there, you didn't hear anything that really jumps out at you as if something was going wrong -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: It's just quite eerie to hear, Rene Marsh reporting live in Washington. Let's head to Kuala Lumpur now. Shortly after the pilot said "Good night Malaysia Flight 370," the plane disappeared from radar for what, 17 minutes and then four hours later they finally started looking for the plane? I know Will Ripley you've been looking into this preliminary report that was released by Malaysian authorities and there is a time line included. Tell us about it.</s>WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes Carol you know you heard the cockpit voice recording at 1:19. And we know by 1:21 a.m., the plane's transponder had been switched off. That's the device that allows the plane to communicate with the civilian air traffic control. It allows civilian computers to monitor this plane. So that switched off. The plane disappeared at 1:21. That's when it just dropped off the radar. But it wasn't until 1:38, a full 17 minutes later that air traffic control in Vietnam asked about the status of Flight 370. So if Vietnam hadn't asked about the status, perhaps it could have gone on even longer. The disappearance of radar could have been unnoticed even longer than 17 minutes. And then 29 minutes after the plane disappeared from radar, then Kuala Lumpur air traffic control asked Vietnam about contact, asked if they had contact with Flight 370. At 1:50, Vietnam told them no, we still haven't. We've now seen 29 minutes pass. And all that's happened essentially is that they noticed that the plane dropped off the radar. They waited another 12 minutes or so, then asked, have you heard now? No answer. And then for four hours, there was so much confusion, it wasn't until 5:30 in the morning that search and rescue was activated by Kuala Lumpur. So what was happening during those four hours, Carol? Well, what we're learning from this report and from the supplemental documents is that there was a lot of back and forth. Kuala Lumpur was saying all right, we think the plane might be in Cambodia when it wasn't. They really didn't have any evidence it was in Cambodia. But by saying that, it caused Cambodia air traffic control to be confused. And then there was this more back and forth, more questions. They go a half an hour, then they check in again, still nothing. So you know what this -- what this points out is that there was clearly time wasted and that while this plane, with 239 people on board was flying somewhere radically off course and it was being tracked for a while on military radar, there was no one up in the air looking for it, Carol. And you look at the passenger list and you see these people, these names that were sitting in these seats on this plane. We don't know what condition they were in. We don't know who is flying the plane. We don't even really know where the plane was going or where it ended because we haven't found a single piece of evidence. But what we now know as a result of all of this, these reports is that no one was looking for four hours.</s>COSTELLO: It's just -- it's almost too much to bear especially if you had loved ones on board that plane. Will Ripley reporting live from Kuala Lumpur this morning. Still to come on the NEWSROOM, Facebook growing up and recognizing what its users do not want. A look at the social network's more mature CEO next and this privacy for you. We'll be right back.