Cell Phone Tower Detected Co-Pilot's Phone
BURNETT: Breaking news in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Just moments ago, an underwater drone aborted its first mission, going back to the surface early after trying to locate the missing aircraft. This comes as we're learning new details about the copilot's cell phone and a possible final communication. According to officials, a cell tower near Penang, Malaysia, detected the copilot's cell phone was on. At the same time, the plane went missing with 239 people onboard. I should emphasize, missing from radar. It was already 250 miles off course at that time and all its communications systems had been turned off. Nic Robertson is in Kuala Lumpur. And, Nic, you've been getting asking Malaysia officials about the cell phone signal and I know you've been getting conflicting answers, so what can you tell us tonight?</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is another one of those things that seems to give us where Malaysian officials have given us conflicting, or at least non-convincing answers. We asked the defense minister, who's the acting transport minister, the Malaysian face, if you will, of the investigation here, about that connection to the cell phone tower, was a cell phone call made was the question. This is what he said.</s>HISHAMMUDDIN HUSSEIN, MALAYSIAN ACTING TRANSPORTATION MINISTER: As far as I know, no, but like I said, that would be in the realm of the police, and the international agencies. And when the time comes, that will be revealed, but I do not want to speculate on that at the moment.</s>ROBERTSON: Now, you might just notice there he rubs the back of his ear during that statement. Some analysts will tell you that means he is less than convinced in what he's saying, but it's just an indication that getting facts from officials here is often very, very hard, straightforward questions don't do the trick. One thing this connection with the cell phone tower may add additional information, the flight and locate -- the altitude and location of Flight 370. It -- we were told radar information said that it was about 4,000 to 5,000 feet above sea level, 80 miles away from the location of the cell phone tower that picked up this cell phone. So clearly it does seem there is more to learn about the altitude of the aircraft as it passed over the Malaysian peninsula, Erin.</s>BURNETT: All right. Nic Robertson, thank you very much. I want to bring in our aviation analysts Les Abend and Jeff Wise, along with ABC "World News" aviation analyst, John Nance. All right. Thanks to all of you. John, what do you -- what do you make of this? I mean, obviously, this is after the transponder is turned off, after the ACARS turned off, after the plane is well off course, and they are saying it's just the copilot's cell phone that picked up the tower, I just simply do not understand that. There's 238 other phones on that plane, at least. But what do you make of this?</s>JOHN NANCE, ABC WORLD NEWS: It's tantalizing. That's about all we can say right now because there's so much we don't know, we don't know whether or not the phone was on from takeoff and left it on, usually that's not the case because you don't want to run the battery out. We don't know if he was trying to make the call or just a handshake connection. And also, and I really think, it's rather puzzling that nobody else on the airplane with cell phones and probably all of them have them, made such a connection. So I really don't know what to make of this, other than to this point we probably have to be cautious.</s>BURNETT: Right. I mean, it seems -- it seems that would be the bottom line, we clearly don't have all the facts, because if it was you're flying really low and a phone already turned on established connection with a cell phone tower, it would be more than one cell phone on that plane, whether the people who had the cell phones were dead or alive is not the point, there would be more than one connection. So, we clearly don't know all the data here?</s>LES ABEND, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: You and I have been skeptical about this from the beginning. Yes, we don't know if the cell phone was turned off prior to departure, whether it was left on, like we talked about. And 80 miles out, I mean, that's a lot. Even -- some of us had got some signals where we miraculously got some cell phone calls out at high altitudes, but I went through this on a trip, this scenario, with the copilots that I flew with. We went through every aspect of it and this puts the copilot maybe outside of the door if we're going to go to the nefarious route, then what, he's the only survivor because he's the only cell phone to activate, or he's in the cockpit -- just doesn't make a lot of sense.</s>BURNETT: Well, here's a question, John, and all of you are pilots, but at 5,000 feet, in the dark flying over the Malaysia peninsula, this is a red eye, would the passengers have known they were at 5,000 feet, i.e., would they have any sense -- I mean, if it was a very gradual turn and gradual dissent or they were told there was traffic, is there a possibility they wouldn't have known anything was wrong and hence wouldn't have been trying to communicate with people?</s>NANCE: It's unlikely that they would have been completely aware and what the altitude is, but they have been aware that something was going on because of the air popping that would have been going on, even if the cabin had not been raised --</s>BURNETT: All right. That's an interesting point, Jeff. So, what do you think when you all this adds up says? Again, we don't know yet whether the phone was on or turned on or that he was trying to communicate. That, obviously, within those answers, lies a lot. But we don't know.</s>WISE: Tells us a lot about the nature of the investigation that this fact must have been known for a long time. I mean, for weeks, we've been hearing, nope, there was no communication between the passengers and cell phone towers on the ground, and now all of a sudden, this thing pops up? It's strange that we're hearing about this now, I think, but it does seem to comport with the idea that we were hearing last week that the plane descended to 4,000 or 5,000 feet. I mean, that at least would seem to jive --</s>BURNETT: Which is important, Les, because we've been told so many things about the altitudes of this plane, up to 45,000, down to 23,000, down 5,000, altitudes all over the map. This would seem to say that at least some of that is true.</s>ABEND: If, indeed, it was down there. Of course, there's a good possibility it could have picked up a cell phone signal, but what is -- it still doesn't -- it just adds more mystery to the riddle. What did -- what was the copilot attempting to do? Was it just on?</s>WISE: Doesn't tell us. Doesn't narrow down the range of possibilities.</s>ABEND: No, I think it adds to the mystery, it really does.</s>BURNETT: What do you think, John, does it narrow down anything to you?</s>NANCE: I don't think so. Again, I think it's tantalizing, but you could go in about so many different directions with this in terms of if this, then that, if that then this. Putting on my fiction writers, I could go all over the map with it and still not come to any conclusion.</s>BURNETT: I mean, I guess the bottom line question, will we ever know what happened in that cockpit if we do not find the flight -- sorry, the cockpit voice recorder? Even if you find the flight data recorder and you find the planes, which at this point are big ifs. I assume that happens, you don't have a voice recorder.</s>ABEND: I think we might have a good idea with the digital flight data recorder on the script that might have been transpiring during that whole process.</s>BURNETT: But you wouldn't know if it was the pilot or copilot, would you?</s>ABEND: It would be difficult, but I think it may be known who was manipulating controls at that particular -- even with the digital flight data recorder. I'm not a forensic expert with that, but I think it's possible.</s>BURNETT: John, do you agree with that, we'd be able to ascertain who?</s>NANCE: I think we've got a pretty good chance. But let me make this point, the Malaysian authorities said they vetted all, what, 229 people not part of the crew and the crew other than the pilots and they couldn't be responsible. I don't buy that. I don't buy that. We had two people on with fake passports, how many other people might we have had on there who really don't know, and don't know whether or not one of them was a pilot? I mean, so everything is still out in the open. The problem is, neither the captain or first officer really had a profile that leads us to believe they would have done this, and yet they had the expertise.</s>BURNETT: Yes. All right. Thanks very much to all three of you, as the mystery deepens. Still to come, a deadly outbreak of Ebola. Doctors are raising against time to contain the virus, to try to prevent a worldwide spread. CNN's Sanjay Gupta is live from guinea, which is ground zero, with an exclusive live report OUTFRONT. And three people dead after a white supremacist allegedly opens fire on two Jewish communities in Kansas. Tonight, we'll hear from a man who interviewed the accused before the attack.