(CNN) - President Barack Obama made his first public comments Wednesday about the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370.

"We have put every resource that we have available at the disposal of the search process. Obama said, "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families, but I want them to be assured that we consider this a top priority."

It's day 13 of the search for the missing plane and still more questions than answers.

Investigators are in a race against time.

They have just 17 days to find the plane's black box before it stops transmitting that crucial signal that could help them locate the wreckage.

What do we know?

Malaysian officials announced today that some data on the flight simulator owned by Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah had been deleted before February 3rd.

Missing flight simulator data probed in Flight 370 disappearance

But it's unclear who deleted the information and why.

The FBI is now examining the simulator's hard-drive as well as computer hard drives belonging to both the pilot and co-pilot.

Searching for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

As for the search, a United States government source tells CNN that all evidence points to the southern search corridor.

Australia, which is leading the search there says it's narrowing its focus to the waters off perth.

OutFront: Former FBI agent Ed Stroz and Jay Leboff, CEO of Hot Seats, a company that makes flight simulators.

The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is a mystery.

The FBI is looking at the hard drive that was taken from the simulator in the pilot's home. Malaysian officials say that some data was deleted prior to February 3rd.

As for the search, United States officials tell CNN that more evidence is pointing to the southern search corridor.

The Australia government now focused on the waters off Perth.

OutFront, Miles O'Brien, who spent nearly 17 years covering aviation for CNN. He is a pilot and the science correspondent for the PBS NewsHour.

The FBI is looking at a flight simulator's hard drive taken from the home of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah.

The agency is also looking at the pilot and co-pilot's computers, searching for any piece of information that may be key to the investigation.

As for the search for the plane, the United States and Australian search teams are focusing their efforts on the waters off Australia's west coast.

But could the plane have flown that far without being detected by radar?

CNN's David Mattingly is OutFront.

The FBI is working to recover deleted files from the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 pilot's flight simulator's hard drive.

Investigators hope the erased files will provide some insight into the pilot's mindset before the flight went missing.

Could the pilot have used his homemade simulator to practice flying in unfamiliar territory? Or perhaps landing on a short runway?

CNN's Martin Savidge is in a Boeing 777 simulator with pilot trainer Mitchell Casado to demonstrate landing on a short runway.

Much has been made about the reprogramming of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370's flight track.

On March 8, the flight departed Kuala Lumpur at 12:41 a.m.

Sometime before 1:07 a.m., authorities believe the jet's flight path was reprogrammed.

And 12 minutes later, at 1:19 a.m., someone in the cockpit uttered the last words heard from the plane, signing-off to air traffic controllers "All right, good night."

Flying low? Burning object? Ground witnesses claim they saw Flight 370

Now, the search for the flight is becoming a race against time. The so-called black box runs on a battery that allows only allows it to transmit a signal for 30 days.

How close do investigators need to be to the black box in order to pick up its signal?

OutFront, Bill Nye, host of "Bill Nye: The Science Guy." He's also a former Boeing mechanical engineer, and knows a lot about black boxes after working on them while at Sundstrand Data Control.