FOX "Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace" - Transcript: Malaysian Flight 370

Interview

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WALLACE: Jennifer, thank you.

For more, let's bring in Texas Congressman Michael McCaul, chair of the Homeland Security Committee, and from New Mexico, Dr. Alan Diehl, a former crash investigator for both the National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA, and author of "Air Safety Investigators: Using Science to Save Lives One Crash At A Time."

Chairman McCaul, any new information on what happened to Flight 370 and where it is now?

REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL, R-TEXAS: Well, as I've said all along, I believe it's in the Indian Ocean. I think the Malaysian government spent way too much time focusing on the northern routes and the Gulf of Thailand and Kazakhstan. It would have been picked up by radar and we knew that. And I know satellite imagery given to the Malaysians established that, but we wasted a week of precious time up in that region when all along it's been in southern Indian Ocean I think is where the location is.

I think this is hopeful that now we have the third satellite imagery of debris in this area and the good news is we can find it I think the area where the debris so that we can get to the black box to finally found out what may have happened in this case.

WALLACE: Let me ask you about another law enforcement aspect of this, Chairman. The FBI has now gotten ahold of the hard drive of the flight simulator of that chief pilot. And we know that he deleted some files. Any information that they have been able to come up with anything to retrieve some of those files and also I know that law enforcement authorities are looking back through all of the e-mails of the two pilots.

MCCAUL: Sure. They're going to scrub all the e-mails. The hard drive of the simulator at Quantico is under review. Having worked with the FBI as a federal prosecutor, I know that even though you may delete a file, they can be retrieved later. And I know that the FBI is working to do that.

Now, we all delete files. But the question is what was deleted and could that be evidence of a route that was taken in this case? And so, I think that's all under review.

Let me just say there are many theories floating around out there. None in my opinion connect all the dots at this point in time. But that's why we have an investigation on going.

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WALLACE: Chairman McCaul, as head of the Homeland Security Committee, are security officials still pursuing the possibility that this is a terrorist plot? Are they still pursuing the possibility that plane didn't crash, that it landed somewhere on a remote runway in the southern Indian Ocean, or have they basically given up on that scenario?

MCCAUL: Well, I think in terms of landing it on a runway somewhere, probably less likely. I think it's in the Indian Ocean. However, we haven't ruled out terrorism, although there is no direct evidence of that at this point in time.

But if this was a deliberate attack as we think it probably was, because remember, the transponders turned off right after they exited Malaysian airspace which is sort of odd scenario and the ACARS system. And then the route is completely turned around dramatically. That suggests that either the pilot intentionally did it for whatever reason or that something was happening in the cockpit on the airplane with some possibly some of the passengers. So we can't rule out the possibility of passengers, of the terrorist link to that. But one thing we do know for certain is the transponders turned off, ACARS, the routes from that were changed.

What caused that? We don't know at this point in time. It's either an accidental fire that may have caused that or a more deliberate intentional act. And I think that's why we need to get to the bottom and get that black box in the Indian Ocean.

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WALLACE: One last question for you, Congressman McCaul.

It turns out there were lithium batteries in the cargo, the possibility that they could have caught on fire.

MCCAUL: Lithium batteries are hazardous cargo. In the United States, they would never be onboard with passengers. I think that's very important to note in this case, they were. We had the flight out of Abu Dhabi, the UPS flight that went down, actually went out and returned and 30 minutes later crashed as well.

So, we have examined that possible theory in this case because they did turn right back around to Malaysia. So we thought about that. But then he says, OK, good night. And the transponders turned off two minutes later.

It makes you wonder there's no distress on the plane at the time. It makes you wonder if there was any sort of crisis. And the fact it flew seven more hours after a potential he electrical fire is on the plane. They could have turned off the transponder? Is that really a viable theory? But I do think it is a theory out there that needs to be examined, along with an intentional deliberate act to bring down the plane.

WALLACE: Well, what I come away from this today is that the mystery continues.

Congressman McCaul, Alan, thank you both. Thanks for joining us today. Obviously, we'll stay on top of the story, gentlemen.

DIEHL: Thank you.

MCCAUL: Thanks, Chris.

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