Aviation experts discuss what may have happened to Flight 370

Jacksonville crews help in search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Channel 4 spoke with aviation experts Monday about what may have happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and looked into how those in the Jacksonville area are getting involved.

New data also suggests there were two possible routes for Flight 370: north across more than a dozen countries or south into the Indian Ocean -- where more than 26 nations continue scouring the vast open sea, including the U.S.

Crews from Jacksonville are now helping in the search.

"At 45,000 feet, your time of useful consciousness is less than 10 seconds and death will occur shortly after that. Above 62,000 feet, without a pressure suit, your blood boils," said aviation attorney Ed Booth. "While their full capabilities are classified, I understand they can locate an object the size of a Coke can in the ocean using their search radar, so if anyone's to find it, it might be some people in Jacksonville."

Booth believes descent to 23,000 feet was for people in command to safely depressurize the airplane, deploy oxygen masks, allowing them to deplete oxygen supply and then up to 45,000 feet to render people in back unconscious and deceased.

If the aircraft is not on the bottom of the ocean, Booth said investigators should be able to find it. If it crashed on the water into hundreds of pieces, debris would float.

Every little thing on an aircraft has a serial number, so say a seat cushion from Flight 370 washed up on the beach. Authorities would be able to trace that serial number back to that particular aircraft.

Booth puts his confidence in the local Navy sailors who are helping in the search aboard a Boeing P-8 Poseidon. Only about 15 of them are made so far, and they're all based in Jacksonville.

Booth describes the P-8 as the ultimate search and rescue platform, with advanced sensor packages that day or night allow investigators to see electronically what is on or under the water to a certain extent.

"While their full capabilities are classified, I understand they can locate an object the size of a Coke can in the ocean using their search radar," Booth said. "So if anyone's to find it, it might be some people in Jacksonville."

Simulators like one at Jacksonville Executive at Craig Airport can help pilots learn from their mistakes.

"The pilot did this wrong, so we learn from it. The pilot did that wrong, so we learn from it," said Sterling flight instructor Matthew Kinney. "New rules are made and new safety regulations are made."

"They might do some calculations as to the known fuel loading of the airplane, and at the altitudes that it was observed flying trying to determine how long it could have remained in the air and where it might be now, whether that's in the ocean or on land somewhere," said Booth.