we needed. he emerged from the giant box and antagonizing people on the sidelines. check him messing with the security there. is this not one of the best mascots you've ever seen? 43 bowl games this season. so you kind of need something to make your stand out i guess. we had a good one for you. >> it does seem like it is the season of mascots. did anybody try to eat the cheez-it? >> no, he held up a sign that said not edible national championship to bring all the action that starts kicking off at 7:30 eastern. finally, the cheese it bowl citrus bowl mascot was the hero we didn't know we needed. emerged from this giant box and then was antagonizing people on the sidelines all games. checking and messing with the security there. i mean, is this not one of the

best mascots you have ever seen. 43 bowl games this season. so you kind of need something to make yours stand out, i guess. there you go. we had a good one, kasie. >> seems like the season of mascots. did anybody try to eat the cheese it? >> no. held up a sign that said not edible, unlike the pop tart bowl mascot who was edible, eaten by winning team. >> apparently so. well, coy, i'm always great to see you on a day i can say 00. . . "cnn this morning" starts right now. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. good morning, everyone. i'm phil mattingly. poppy harlow is off. we're following the breaking news out of tokyo. japanese airline plane with nearly 400 people on board burst into flames just as it touched down at the airport. video showing the jet igniting into a large fire ball as it landed. you can see the pictures right there.

officials say it collided with a japanese coast guard aircraft headed to help with earthquake relief efforts. >> one person on the coast guard plane escaped, but five remain unaccounted for. so here is that terrifying scene inside the plane as smoke filled the cabin and passengers scrambled to find a way out. now you can see the plane with emergency slides open, people running out as firefighters tried to put out the flames. >> we start off with cnn's will ripley live from tokyo. will, i have been watching your reporting over the course of the last hour. the pictures are wild, terrifying to some degree. what do we know about what actually happened here? >> reporter: so what we know is that this plane was packed, coming from the hot spot city of sapporo, lanning at haneda airport. my camera man john flew in there

a few hours before it happened. i also flew in from a different airport. we know this airport very well. it was on runway c just before 6:00 local time, two hours ago this plane with 367 passengers, including eight children under the age of 2, and 12 crew members on board collided with this coast guard plane that had six people on board. now, five of the coast guard people on the coast guard plane are still unaccounted for. one person is known to have escaped. but in that airliner, they essentially had about 90 seconds before the plane became engulfed in flames. 90 seconds to get every passenger including the children off the aircraft and out on to the runway. people who were on the plane posting on social media saying that it was terrifying. they thought they were going to die. and yet the crew meticulously carried out the evacuation plan, a plan that you see every time you sit down and get on the

plane, especially in ja pap. they're very diligent to make sure you're paying attention to the video that plays. still a lot of serious questions, including what were these two airplanes doing on the same runway at the same time to have this violent, fiery collision, when you look at those pictures and look at how terrifying that looks and know that this coast guard plane was supposed to be taking off from a nearby coast guard base to go help with earthquake relief, that is a tragedy in and of itself. this nation just hours into the new year getting rocked by an earthquake with the number of dead ticking upward. and yet nearly 400 people on board this plane that burned for more than an hour on the runway, shutting down one of the most busy airports in japan right near the center of tokyo nearly 400 people are all alive right now. and we don't know the extent of anybody's injuries, if there were any, it was truly an extraordinary moment for japan

which is going through a very difficult first couple of days of 2024. >> is there any sense that there is a reason for what happened? there actually haven't been any commercial airline crashes, et cetera, the last couple of years. so what are people saying right now? >> so this was an air bus a-350-900. japan airlines has a bunch of them in their fleet. it has a solid safety record. what is being reported by japan's national broadcaster nhk is there might have been some miscommunication with air traffic control. the airport was very busy. my camera mab john says when he was landing he saw another aircraft very close to his and told me he looked out the window and thought to himself, gosh, that's the closest i've ever seen with another plane at this point when my flight is coming in and landing. and so, something happened. there was something that happened that caused these two planes to be on the same runway

at the same time. was it a human error? was it a computer error? those are serious questions that japan is going to dive into because they have a meticulous safety record when it comes to public transportation, whether in the skies or rail. they have been running bullet trains since the 1960s. never had a single fatality despite these trains are traveling hundreds of miles an hour. i can guarantee within a matter of hours there will be an army on the scene of that airport. they will shut it down completely sch will certainly disrupt travel during this very busy time, but they're going to pick apart every single detail of what happened and they're going to then likely in the coming weeks and months ahead be sweeping changes to make sure that they learn from this and that this never is repeated here in japan. that is one thing i can tell you after living in this country and how much they focus on safety, there certainly is a lot of shock that something like this could have happened on a runway

at a japanese airport. >> will ripley, thank you. >> joining us now is the inspector general of the u.s. department of transportation. we appreciate your expertise. just to start, the pictures that we have seen, will lays out so many unanswered questions. what you're looking at, what are you seeing? >> reporter: well, at this point, what i'm seeing right now is the plane is well into being engulfed in flames and a scene we have seen in other crashes in the last decade, the plane was burned, engulfed in flames and everyone or in the case of a crash in san francisco, california, almost everyone got off and survived and their lives were spared. but we have seen this scenario because of the improvements to aircraft construction, because of the improvement in safety requirements. will is right. with modern aircraft, your boeing, air bus, whoever, everybody has to be able to get off that plane in under 90

seconds. you have to prove to be airline certified. we have seen the plane completely burned but everybody got off and survived again here tremendously wonderful. you know, they call it a miracle, but it's not. it's science and it's great improvement and construction of aircraft the last two decades. >> there was also a mention there by will ripley about concerns regarding air traffic controllers. this is something obviously in the u.s. there's serious worry about because of the shortages, et cetera. can you talk about how and why that might come into focus. >> yes. i was also very fortunate when i was inspector general i actually got to work in japan and go up in several of the japanese towers when i was inspector general. and they approached the air traffic control just as will said, very, very seriously. they have relief rooms, sleep rooms. they're very conscientious about taking their breaks. eating and sleep rooms are right in the tower.

so they take their rest periods very seriously at -- this is at many of the towers in japan, not speci specifically haneda airport. if you're not paying attention, they will come to you and say pay attention. you must pay attention. will is right. the scenes from aircraft, because people at their cell phones we have seen many scenes. this one was very organized, very calm. i mean, we have all seen others where it's not calm. there's screaming and people are getting baggage. they are following the rules and getting off that plane. that's the key. every door is opened. every slide is functioning. now, we have covered crashes on cnn where not all the doors could be opened. not all the slides were functioning. it's legal in the united states to fly with not every slide functioning. so, this is also a testament that everything was working and they did what they were supposed to do and all the slides off,

everybody off in 90 seconds or less as the law requires in most aviation nations. so, kudos to what they were doing, what they were supposed to do when they're supposed to do it and the aircraft worked. the aircraft functioned. >> it's remarkable both in orderly and seemingly efficient it was and also the passengers as terrified as they have said they were on social media, following instructions very clearly. can you walk us through -- we have been showing live pictures of the planes but progression from when it landed inside to outside and how it progressively gone more and more up in flames. why is that? what's happened collision to what we have seen on the ground most recently the plane is completely engulfed? >> right. and one thing important to notice, we did not see a big explosive event. and that's one thing that's been debated for a long time. should we do enerting in the fuel tanks in the wings and this and that -- on this plane it's hard to see exactly which model

it is. we did not see fuel tanks explode. so much debate over that going all the way back to tw 800, 1996, when that -- when the wings exploded, the fuel tank sender wing tank exploded. and there's been much to talk about that. here they did not and that was very fortunate those tanks did not explode because we would have had a huge massive fire ball event and to see the progression, looks as though when it was landing, sparks either took out a tire or an engine. it's hard to see on the video. but it does take a while for the plane to burn because on the inside there have been improvements on the fireproofing and the fire retardant and require resistant surfaces, everything from seat covers had to be changed the rugs had to be changed, the interiors in the cabin had to be changed to make things less flammable. here we also have pretty good idea that there was nothing

particularly bad or flammable in the cargo because of the slower speed at which it burned. this is the aircraft itself burning. so we didn't have the fuel exploding and we didn't have anything in the cargo hold explode or catch fire. so this is what has happened is they improved the materials of the aircraft to be more fire resistant. again, by laws. those were laws and spearheaded, including by the united states, by federal aviation administration but other countries and aviation administrations around the world of the major aviation nations got together, air bus did the same thing, boeing did the same thing. you had to do that to meet the requirements in modern aviation standards and aircraft survivability laws. so kudos again to improvements in technologies. >> yeah. it's such a good point. miraculous is the word that comes to mind, but it's not by accident that this was possible. we always appreciate your expertise. thank you. >> thank you. breaking overnight, the fbi

is now investigating a deadly and fiery car crash outside a new year's eve concert involving an suv packed with gas cans in rochester, new york. the suv is engulfed in flames after it slammed into a car pulling out of a parking lot. police say the vehicles plowed through a crowd of people and a crosswalk outside the concert venue. you can see gas cans on the ground outside the charred suv. the police chief says first responders found at least a dozen of them in and around the vehicle. the crash killed at least two people and we're told the driver of the suv is in the hospital with life-threatening injuries. here is how people at the concert described the scene. >> it was only about 20 feet from the building. and at the time when everybody was funneling out, the flames were probably still like 15 feet high. >> as we walked down into the hallway, and going down the stairs, the smell of gasoline was just so intense.

i couldn't believe how strong it was. >> here with us is cnn's brynn gingras. we mentioned the gas cans. what else are people talking about? >> you hit the two major points. a car ramming into a crowd of people and gas cans around one of those vehicles. obviously this is raising serious larm for law enforcement quickly as you pointed out the fbi gets involved in these type of things trying to figure out what was the motive here. let's back up to explain more how this crash happened as you look at the aftermath of what these concert goers were seeing. this was really only an hour into the new year when people were at a concert, 1,000 people were at the kodak center in rochester, new york. they were leaving that venue when police were trying to help many of them cross that crosswalk when a ford expedition, according to police, rammed into that crosswalk as a mitsubishi outlander was trying to actually exit that parking lot. and that then caused the explosion. after the fact, that's when

authorities found those dozen gas cans and of course, raised that major alarm. let's listen to law enforcement and how they described it to us. >> the force of the collision caused the two vehicles to go through a group of pedestrians that were in the crosswalk and then into two other vehicles. there was a large fire associated with the crash that took the rochester fire department almost one hour to extinguish. >> you heard some of the people talking about the smell that they basically were hit with as they were trying to leave that concert as well. listen, two people inside that mitsubishi outlander were killed. several other people injured, including someone in the -- several people in the crosswalk, including a police officer. and then also the driver of that ford expedition has life-threatening injuries in the hospital as well. of course, law enforcement is going to pinpoint that driver. that's the person the gas cans were around. they want to know what exactly happened. unclear the condition of the person at the moment. but you better believe right now, we have been talking for

quite a while now, law enforcement is in this heightened threat environment. they're aware of terrorist attacks, lone wolf attacks. that is something on the mind. they'll investigate this person, talking to their family. i got to believe that's already starting to happen but we're continuing to ask those questions right now. >> brynn gingras, thank you so much. cnn is at one of the hardest-hit areas of japan's earthquake as the death toll rises this morning. we have new images showing the scope of destruction as rescuers race to save people trapped under the rubble. and later a list of more than 150 people linked to the late sex offender jeffrey epstein is set to be released. details on who could be named. that's ahead. ♪

♪ breaking news this morning, the leader of south korea's main opposition party is now out of surgery at the hospital after he was stabbed in the neck during a brazen daytime attack. disturbing video shows him walking through a crowd of journalists when a man posing as a supporter suddenly strikes him in the left side of the neck. >> you can see on the video collapsing on the ground with his eyes closed and looking pale. doctors say the wound is not life threatening. mark, what do we know about -- you see the video. what do we know about what

actually happened here? >> hi there, phil. good morning, audi. we have been hearing from police. it's well tuesday evening in seoul. the narrative unraveling, a man on a mission. he went online, bought a knife with a 7 inch blade, went to this political rally, a asked this politician for an autograph and then pulled out that knife and attacked him. you know, we saw one picture of him on the ground with someone holding a hanker chif trying to quell the bleeding. he has serious injuries. dealing with damage to jugular vain. he is here in the hospital right now in the intensive care unit. he is resting. this is certainly raising questions about politicians and their safety. he is a household name. he's a very well known politician here in south korea.

although a bit controversial. he is now under investigation. his party, the liberal party, is condemning this attack as well as the conservative party, which is led by south korean president yoon. they are making a big point to say this needs to be investigated. this is a very fragile moment in south korean politics. there is a very defined split between the liberal and conservative parties. neither side wants this to be politicized. we should also point out, this is not the first time we have seen a knife attack involving politicians here in south korea. at one time the former u.s. ambassador was attacked by a knife. and then former president park when she was running for office, she, too, was the target of a knife attack, phil and audi-w thank you, marc stewart. a massive rescue operation is under way in japan after the devastating earthquake.

it's a battle against time to rescue peep trapped under the rubble. people say the death toll is at 48, tens of thousands still without electricity. >> cnn is live from an evacuation center. i know it's still early, but can you talk aboutseeing. >> reporter: yeah. i'll be speaking at a quiet voice because we are at an emergency center. people have been taking shelter here after experiencing a very powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake. behind me, these people have lost their homes. they can't return home. they have been sleeping in their cars since that very powerful earthquake. there's no running water. no electricity, heating sorry in this place. so in order to stay warm, people are using blankets. they're sleeping on mats. japanese self defense force are just outside and they have tanks full of water and been giving this out to locals in the area.

now, we know that 120 people are still stuck inside their homes. and the japanese government as well as emergency medical staff are trying to get to these survivors. but it's very difficult to get to this part of japan because, a, the peninsula, aren't many options to get in but, b, because the main road leading into this peninsula is collapsed because of this massive earthquake. now people in this shelter have been experiencing aftershocks, very powerful aftershocks. in fact, just a few minutes ago we felt one ourselves. we also know that it's rubble in corners of this building collapsed from these concrete pillars and people don't know when they can return home but they're taking shemter here until they get further confirmation. >> thank you, hanako. happening today, donald trump is expected to appeal the decisions to remove him from primary ballots in colorado and

maine. where this is all headed. michigan has qualified for the national championship game with its victory last night. the matchup is officially set. they will face off with washington after a big day of bowl gamames. morere on that a ahead.

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♪ we are continuing to follow the breaking news out of tokyo at haneda airport where a commercial airliner burst into flames following an in-air collision with a japanese coast guard plane. everybody on the plane was able to escape alive. we're still waiting for more details. the plane has been engulfed in flames. we will continue to follow that over the course of the next several hours. also this morning, donald trump is expected to fight to keep his name on the republican primary ballots in colorado and maine today. it comes after both states ruled he is ineligible to serve as president under a rarely used constitutional ban against those who engaged in an insurrection. trump will appeal. cnn's zachary cohen joins us now. time clearly of the essence here

as ballots need to be finalized soon. any sense of when the courts might act after the appeals are filed? >> reporter: that sense of urgency is exactly what's fueling this mounting pressure on the u.s. supreme court to weigh in on this issue. look, it starts with colorado where the republican party there is already appealed that decision to the u.s. supreme court. we're waiting to see if and when the highest court in the land will take up this issue, this unprecedented constitutional question of whether or not a state can remove a candidate from the ballot under this insurrection ban, the 14th amendment. look, listen to what colorado secretary of state said yesterday about the urgency, about the timeframe they need to know an answer on this very question. >> i certify the names on to the ballot for the presidential primary this friday. so we do hope that the court understands that presidential primaries are rapidly approaching and gives us the definitive answer whether or not

the former president is disqualified from the ballot. >> reporter: so obviously we know, too, that trump also intends to appeal the colorado decision to the u.s. supreme court. in maine, he attends to appeal to state level courts there. we know that process can take a few weeks, but the final deadline for the maine supreme court to take actually the last day of january. that process could work its way out quickly. still, we're seeing a lot of different views on this from the state level. we're still waiting on a decision from oregon, for example who is considering whether or not they want to remove donald trump from the ballot. so, still a lot of uncertainty out there. that's why people are asking for the u.s. supreme court to provide some clarity in the short term. >> zach cohen, thank you. also, doom and gloom colors the messaging of the top presidential campaigns. how are voters responding? we'll have more ahead. number one versus number two in the college football national championship. top ranked -- keep making me say michigan all day. beat number four alabama in an overtime thriller in the rose bowl to advance to the national

championship game. wolverines will take on number two washington who edged third ranked texas in the sugar bowl. this came down to the final play of the game. you're watching when the huskies knocked down a lengthy pass on fourth down. the title game will be played in houston on monday night. go, huhuskies. wewe'll be r right back.k.

as we continue to follow breaking news out of japan, there are new developments.

we now five crew members have died on the japan coast guard plane that collided with the passenger jet in tokyo. that's according to japan public broadcaster nhk. the captain of the plane is in critical condition. we'll continue to cover this story throughout the morning. and we're going to turn to politics. doom and gloom dominate both joe biden's and donald trump's campaigns. for example, here is trump. >> we will root out the communist, marxist, fascist and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country. >> he says, you're not going to be a dictator. i say, no, no, no, other than day one. either they win or we win. and if they win, we no longer have a country. >> the other side of the aisle, biden returned to the high-stakes message of his 2020 election, 2022 midterms. recently biden said, quote, the greatest threat trump poses the threat to our democracy. if we lose, we lose everything.

joining us to discuss lee carter, errol louis and emily. it doesn't strike me as a rarity that candidates, particularly those running against a candidate choose doom and gloom and everything is terrible. the fact this is the vibe of the entire race both sides regardless of who is running, does that surprise you? >> i don't think we have lee who is frozen. em emily, i'll turn to you. i get it. this is particularly stark. >> it is. it is. they're working with known quantities. biden and trump are people been in elected office, in the white house before. playing off of fears of the known and the unknown. this is what a trump presidency was and you don't want it again.

this year. this is what a trump, biden presidency has been. you don't want it again this year. but when you think about donald trump in particular, his 2016 acceptance speech at the republican national convention, january 2017 inauguration speech were very, very dark. so he's continuing on that trend. and we know now that barack obama, the message of hope, all those years ago, may have been an anomaly in politics now at a time when the country is so divided, hyperpartisanship is here to stay and where there's confirmation bias, where people are only going to seek out the things that validate their own personal views. here they have donald trump and joe biden speaking to the fears that are fomenting among them. >>er roll lewis, i want to ask you if this is also the consequence of a lesson learned from us, the voters. which is that negative partisanship works. we cast ballots against the people we don't like, not for the people we like. >> that's right. this is something that certain kind of politician has used for a long, long time. you can, in fact, run on

resentment and grievance and fear and anger. at the same time, though, i have to say, one reason that they have to hype it up so much, in the end people really vote their pocketbooks. it's an abstraction to say if this, then that. and we could lose our country. yes, that's true. >> even after january 6th, you're saying this? >> absolutely. listen, on january 7th people still had to buy gas, still had to buy groceries. that's something you can talk about everyday because people can see that and it's real and right in front of them. the prospect that everything might change for the worse if you don't vote is a bit of an abstr abstraction. everything you can look at in polling will tell you that. the state of the economy and people's personal balance sheets will tell the story of far more reliably than whether or not people have been scared into hating their neighbor or whatever it is these candidates are trying to do. >> to that point, i think it's interesting when i watch the messaging of any campaign, i'm trying to think, who are they targeting here, whether it's

turnout, specific subset of voters, as you're digging through the cross tabs. this seems like an activation, motivation for your base because we need those coalitions the turn out, not going to try find people the middle. does anybody the middle still exist at this point? >> there's very few people the middle. most people identify as in independents most people lean one way or the other. the thing that's important to keep in mind is that only 4% of americans think that the political system is working well. so, all of this negative rhetoric is playing into the beliefs of the american people. and the american people are saying 7 in 10 americans are saying they want a fighter to be the president. so this is sort of what they're looking for. and in many ways, trump as we were just talking about, trump has always played this character. he is the fighter. he wants to go blow things up. he'll be the outsider who will do all that and did it in 2016. it's the way he ran in 2020 and who he is today. and i think because more than one in two americans right now

feel worse off today than they did a year ago, it could work very well for him. joe biden owns the situation right now. and so when you talk about how bad things might be if donald trump were to come back, they're going to compare to how they felt three years ago. do they feel better or worse. so, i'm not sure that for joe biden the negative rhetoric is one that's going to work. the democracy rhetoric absolutely worked in the midterms. it did rally the base in 2020. but when people feel so much worse now than they did then, the question is, how does joe biden answer to say, yes, it's going to be so much worse but people feel worse any way. >> lee carter, thank you so much, emily, errol, thank you. ron desantis and nikki haley take questions directly from iowa voters in back-to-back events, the cnn republican presidential town halls moderated by erin burnett and kaitlan collins this thursday night at 9:00 p.m. eastern. a list of more than 150

names connected to the late sex offender jeffrey epstein is set to be named public. who could be on the list and what it all means, that's next. following the breaking news out of japan where five coast guard crew members are dead after their plane collided with a passenger jet. the passengers given just 90 seconds to evacuate, more of the breaking details ahead.

more on our breaking news. five crew members have died on the japan coast guard plane that collided with a pass skenger jen tokyo. cnn's will ripley is back with us live from tokyo. will, this is new developments. we know everybody on the commercial plane got out alive. not the case, though, with the crew of the coast guard flight. is that correct?

>> reporter: it is correct. and what's particularly sad about this is that that coast guard plane was taking off to help deliver morning relief supplies that are badly needed on japan's central west coast where a massive 7.5 earthquake has killed dozens of people and still digging through the rubble to search for survivors or potentially others who were hurt not just in the commercial quake but also in fires that started after the earthquake. but in terms of this extraordinary scene at one of the busiest airports in japan at haneda airport, we're learning more details about this collision that happened on runway c. one of the passengers was on live television speaking to japan's national broadcaster, nhk. he said that the exits in the back and middle of the plane did not work. so everybody, all 367 passengers including eight kids under the age of 2 and 12 crew members had to get out through the front exits as flames were quickly engulfing the engines and the back of the plane before the entire aircraft was burning.

it was burning for well over an hour. it still is smoldering right now. so, they had not only did these passengers all safely evacuate, around 400 people get off the plane in a matter of seconds. they had to all do it through the front emergency exits of the aircraft only because some of the exit doors were not operational. that is truly an extraordinary detail of what is just an incredible story, success story when it comes to getting people off the aircraft safely. kudoses to that crew. a dozen crew members who were able to pull that off and the passengers as well. there was one mother appearing on japanese television holding her young child in her arms saying the black smoke was enveloping the cabin, she didn't think she was make it, but trying to keep her child safe. all the children on is that aircraft, all the people on that aircraft are safe and alive right now. it is just, just extraordinary, remarkable, words don't describe the situation. >> incredible, will. thank you so much.

we'll be checking back with you at the top of the hour. now, new overnight, deadly attacks across ukraine and poland activate spider jets to protect its air space from russian forces. and the fbi is continuing to investigate a deadly car crash in upstate new york. the vehicles hitting a group of people outside a concert venue. one of those cars was filled with gas cans. new dedetails aheaead. ♪♪

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♪ new overnight, ukraine's president says at least four people were killed and nearly 100 injure affidavit another round of russian attacks. kyiv and kharkiv regions were

hit the hardest with president zelenskyy claiming most of the attacks were acimed at civilian targets. just after vladimir putin said russia would step up attacks on ukraine in the new year. now ukraine's neighbor, poland, activated fighter jets to protect its air space amid the barrage of russian missile strikes. u.s. navy is pulling its largest par ship from the eastern mediterranean sea. gerald r. ford was deployed after hamas attacks on israel october 7 mtth. it will head back after eight months at sea. the uss eisenhower is the lone u.s. aircraft carrier in the region at the same moment houthi attacks on commercial ships stir tensions in the red sea. joining us to discuss is david sanger from "the new york times," david, i want to start there because the carrier's deployment had been extended for several months for it to take position where it had. and yet, its departure comes at

a very tenuous moment right now. why do they pull it out? >> it's a really interesting question because they -- i think they had to balance both the amount of time it's been out and the concerns about whether or not a new front with open up with hezbollah coming out of lebanon or not. the eisenhower is the one that is seeing the most action lately, including over the past weekend when a pretty remarkable conflict group of houthi fighters who were on small boats trying to attack a commercial freighter ended up firing on u.s. navy helicopters. and the navy sank three of these small boats. the houthis maintain that they had ten killed. so that's going to be a pretty active rejn. and, i think there's going to be a lot of concern in the area that they are pulling ford out

of the coast of israel there. >> david, you've also been writing about the u.s. helicopters that sank three houthi boats, killing ten on board. people may have heard of the houthis back when they were talking about yemen's war. what do you make of this moment now where there's this interaction between the u.s. and this group? >> well, the big equestion that comes out of this, poppy, is whether or not these are all being coordinated by iran. there is increasing evidence that iran has been providing some of the targeting data and some of the ship locations to the houthis. as part of their broader coordination of resistance fighters, as they call them, throughout the region. and you know, iran is the one thing that ties together the houthis, the attacks on american bases in syria, the attacks out

of iraq where iran has a major presence and, of course, hezbollah in lebanon. and while the iranians don't want to seem to take on the united states directly, they seem more than willing to have these proxy groups take on the u.s. and i think the navy felt -- a lot of navy officials i have spoken to felt there was not a whole lot of push back on the houthis in recent times. but as long as the action is taking place against hamas, i think you'll see these attacks continue. >> david, can i pull that thread a little further. in talking to military officials both current and former over the course of the last several weeks, there's genuine surprise not direct attacks on houthis, their bases. what is the rrational of the administration?

>> this comes straight out of president biden's own strategy. he is concerned that the war not escalate, but he's also concerned that he not up end what has been a fairly effective truce so far between saudi arabia and the houthis in yemen. that conflict, which had been raging for years, they finally sort of negotiated not a peace but at least a truce. and i think his concern is that if the u.s. begins to strike inside yemen, that's all going to fall apart. but there are a fair number of senior administration officials inside the pentagon, saying, look, you can't continue allow this to continue. doing pinprick attacks against locations where they're launching missiles or drones is not going to be enough. i think that's the tension that

will play out in the next few weeks. and be interesting to see if the houthis calm it down now that they lost three boats and ten of their fighters. >> david sanger, thank you so much. "cnn this morning" continues right now. good morning, everyone. we're following the breaking news. audie cornish is with us. poppy harlow is off today. a passenger jet colliding, miraculously all the passengers on the commercial plane were safely evacuated. some were injured. s some coast guard members were injured. 48 people have been killed, our crews are standing by in japan in one of the hardest hit areas. this morning, the fbi looks into a deadly and fiery crash in rochester, new york. two vehicles colliding and then plowing into a crowd of people. what officials are saying about

gasoline canisters found at the scene. "cnn this morning" starts n. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. we're following more breaking news out of tokyo this morning. a japan airlines passenger jet with 400 people on board, see it landing there with the fire ball on its wing, collided with a japan coast guard aircraft on its way to help with earthquake relief efforts. japan's public broadcaster now reporting five crew members on that coast guard plane had been killed. the captain is in critical condition. now, video shows the commercial plane igniting into a fire ball, barrelling down the runway this morning. the airline says nearly everyone from that flight was safely evacuated. japan's public broadcaster says 17 passengers were injured. and this was the panicked scene inside the plane as smoke filled the cabin and passengers scrambled to fin