Answering Viewer Questions on MH370.
BERMAN: So much unknown in the search for flight 370. And a lot of you tweeting us questions.</s>PEREIRA: Our experts, Jeff Wise and Mary Schiavo, are back here to answer them. Mary, want to start with you. Before we get to those questions from our viewers, we know today that the news was that families were denied their request to hear the recordings from the cockpit to the air traffic control. They really wanted to hear those voices for themselves. They were denied that request. I want you to answer if that is standard operating procedure and investigation. And also I know that you feel that oftentimes the families can aid in recognizing voices on those recordings.</s>MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST & FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION: That's right. It's not standard operating procedure. And, in fact, the United States, air traffic control tapes and correspondents are considered public record. They're released right away. In fact, you can apply the Freedom of Information Act and get them. It's the cockpit voice recording that the actual voices are protected. And it takes a court order to use those in court. But the transcript on the CDR only is released. And yes, it's very important for people to listen. There are experts that make their living by interpreting what's on those tapes. Many times, the public can hear. And by the way, the pilot and co-pilot's family would be able to identify their voices so there wouldn't be any mystery.</s>BERMAN: Jeff, we'll turn now to questions we're getting from viewers. This is one a lot of people are asking. If the plane went down in the water, why didn't the ELT, saltwater emergency beacons, why did they not activate and signal the plane's position? This plane, we think, had at least two of them.</s>JEFF WISE, CNN AVIATION ANALYST & FORMER PILOT: Well, you know, the problem is that in many, many cases, these things just don't work. And they should, but the fact that there is no evidence doesn't mean there is an absence of evidence. Or I should say an absence of evidence is not an evidence of absence. So they just often are unreliable. Might be as simple as that. It was broken.</s>PEREIRA: I think you want to take executive privilege --</s>BERMAN: That is my executive privilege. You took executive, executive privilege.</s>PEREIRA: OK. I didn't know my executive usurped. Back to Twitter. Mary, a lot of people are wondering why not every resource was scam belled immediately. If you were asked, when the plane first turned around, why didn't they scramble a few jets? It was on military radar.</s>SCHIAVO: Well, people might be surprised to know after September 11, 2001, that pretty much every day some plane strays off course. People go astray. It's private planes, get lost, if you will. They put the wrong frequency in and people can't reach them. It happens all of the time. And we don't -- very rarely do we or other nations scramble jets, because most of the time it's just somebody literally lost in the hertz or messing up.</s>BERMAN: Well, scrambling jets is one thing, Jeff, but this seems to be one of the biggest missed opportunities in this whole mystery, which is why didn't Malaysia first act when they saw this actual radar blip tracking across their screen. Why didn't Thailand act when they saw this blip tracking across their screen? And then, of course, the whole question of Indonesia. We don't know what they saw or didn't see, because they're not telling anybody. But they certainly didn't take action if they did see something.</s>WISE: Right. No matter where the plane went, there are at least four countries that it traversed their military radar system. And it's not like these people aren't watching their radars. In 2012, an American flying a private plane, who was sort of bumbling about in Indonesia, he got intercepted by two Sucoy (ph) jets. So they do take their air space seriously. They are able to detect these things.</s>BERMAN: I've had people ask on Twitter, are the Malaysians embarrassed, Mary? Do you think they're hiding something because they're simply embarrassed they didn't react more quickly to these signs?</s>SCHIAVO: Oh, I think so. I think they're probably embarrassed. And they're concerned that the world may not think that they're on top of it or that they're vulnerable. And besides, now that we have all the discussion whether or not this is a criminal act, and we have no evidence that it is, but, you know, then the nations have to be wary of copy cats. And what -- and people who want to emulate and people might think, hmmm, that's an interesting plan. So the first -- the first event is, you know, an eye-opener, but the second event are people out there who want to do a me-too.</s>PEREIRA: Yeah. A me-too. Really quickly, Mary, we've talked about this, about compensation, families will receive. They wanted to know, one of the viewers wanted to know if the same rates would apply regardless of the deceased nationality. Does it depend, nation to nation?</s>SCHIAVO: Well, there are a lot of different variations on that rule. And sometimes it depends where the plane goes down. For example, in the United States, if it goes down in Virginia, they apply the law of Virginia. If it goes down in New York, they apply the law of the place of residence. Usually, on an international flight, it's where the person resided and sometimes where the plane crashed. And that's kind of the rule of thumb. So if one nation is generous and that's where they reside, they will have far more generous compensation. And it does depend on how much you make, who you support, you know, the circumstances of your family.</s>BERMAN: Mary Schiavo, Jeff Wise, thank for answer our questions as well as viewer questions. Always interesting to hear what people are asking.</s>PEREIRA: And thank you to you for participating in this conversation with us. Thank you for joining us also @ THIS HOUR. I'm Michaela Pereira. Have a great weekend.</s>BERMAN: I'm John Berman. "LEGAL VIEW" with Ashleigh Banfield starts now. Can we do the bump thing?</s>PEREIRA: Oh, I see how that is.