♪ welcome to al jazeera america, i'm del walters, these are the stories we are following for yo you. >> image 370 ended in the southern indian ocean. >> reporter: malaysia prime minister telling the world all lives were lost on board the missing malaysia airliner, flight 370. in washington state a mudslide kills eight and several people are still missing.

president obama talking to the u.s. allies about the crisis in ukraine. they are meeting at the nuclear security summit in the netherlands. ♪ we continue to follow breaking news at this hour, just before 10:00 a.m. eastern time malaysia prime minister addressing reporters, telling them sad news that the missing malaysia flight 370 went down in the south indian ocean and randall parentin pinkston has been following this for days and what do we know? >> 16 days from kuala lumpur to beijing and the british version of ntsb brought the prime minister to microphones to tell families of passengers aboard the flight the news they

dreaded. >> it is there for with deep sadness and regret that i must inform you that according to this new data life image 370 ended in the southern indian ocean. >> reporter: the new data that the prime minister refers to comes from the united kingdom's accident investigation branch, that agency using satellite information for that part of the world over the indian ocean came up with an unique algorithm, a new calculation never before used and came to the conclusion that the plane had definitely turned away from beijing and headed southwest toward remote parts of the indian ocean. >> based on the new analysis, and the aaid they have concluded

that mh 370 flew along the southern corridor and that its last position was in the middle of the indian ocean, west of perth. this is a remote location. far from any possible landing sites. >> reporter: now, the information comes as satellites and search planes have spotted objects floating in the search area about 15 miles west of perth, australia but with rough seas and limited visibility they are not sure if what they have seen so far is from mh 370. >> and, randall, the problem is even at this late date, 16 days after it went down, we still don't know what caused it to go down.

>> reporter: we don't know what caused it and that is because they have not yet managed to find a debris field that can lead them to the crash site that can help them find that black box is what they need to find and time is of the essence and the battery from the black box lasts 30-35 days and we are day 16 and do the math, they have to find it soon. >> reporter: randall in washington d.c. and thank very much and we have more on the southern arc that authorities are referring to and now we are looking once again at the area we folk used on but there is a reason why. >> the prime minister's announcement came because of what he called unprecedented analysis of data and it came from the british and let's take you back for a second. based on the last thing from the aircraft that believe the aircraft came down the indian ocean and just make an arc like this and basically what they have been focusing on in the last week have been areas right here west of perth, this area,

the small square here being the last area they were focusing on just the four days ago. so the new analysis, this unprecedented analysis concludes the last location was a remote area, west of perth and they have been focusing, by the way, this is about 1500 miles west of perth here, there would be no landing spots there, no fuel left and some of the objects found there recently, a gray or green circular object, an orange rectangular object and now it's a difficult search for floating debris at this point just because of the changing currents in this whole area and also the very high winds and debris can be scattered in many directions, del. >> reporter: thank you very much and they described it as if they are searching for a needle in a hey stack is the way that andrew thomas describes the search efforts unfolding right now in australia and joins us from perth. >> it's such a remote area, you

get in a plane and fly for 3 1/2 hours before you get to the search zone narcs is the equivalent of flying from one side of australia to the other and look around for about two hours which is all you get before you get low on fuel and have to turn around and go back. we pushed our luck a lit bit and stayed in the search area a bit longer than they normally would and they said we were low on fuel and had to head back and we did, we had two hours 40 minutes actually searching. when i mean searching you are low on the water going very fast and very hard to spot objects. >> reporter: in perth, australia and we have todd curtis, todd tell us at this point in time and joins us by phone on day 16, do we know anything, can we rule anything out? >> well, as far as the cause of why the airplane went that far south, we really can't rule

anything out because as i stated before, with limited data we have about the aircraft is the behavior that has been observed from the outside and we literally don't know what went on inside the airplane, whether or not it was the crew reacting to a dire emergency or whether it was some deliberately making the aircraft behave the way it did, unless there is information from the aircraft including the black boxes and including possibly cameras and other recording media from passengers we really won't know what happened there. >> officials in malaysia were criticized for being too slow with release of information, are they timely with the release of this information or was it too much too soon? >> well, given they had something definitive from a source that was obviously the best source of the information from the aaip, once they have that information, even if it was pretty much late at night in malaysia, given the speed that information leaks out from around the world, it was the

prudent thing for them to do is step up and give the announcement and basically get ahead of the story this time around. >> what are you seeing and hearing that we are not? >> well, the one thing i'm hearing from the prime minister, he seems to be fairly definitive that all lives are lost and i hold that given they don't know what went on inside the aircraft, at this point it's unclear whether or not this was a controlled landing in the water, that is the crew ditching the aircraft in the way that sully did in new york a few years ago or uncontrolled impact on the water. it was the latter i would say that if the prime minister was correct he doesn't know that and we don't know that. so although the likelihood is extremely low especially for survival in the open ocean after 15, 16 days i say there is a very slim possibility that there are survivors that are still alive or passengers and crew who survived the initial landing on

the water. >> reporter: todd is there anything at this point in time that would suggest why the initial event that caused so much concern and speculation, that being someone turning off the instruments inside the plane, is there anything right now that would point a finger as to why that may have happened? >> unfortunately, no, because the devices could be turned off either deliberately for good reason, for example there is a system where the electronics are over heating or catching on fire and that is legitimate and someone is shutting it down to keep it hidden from the outside world or something else happening we are not aware of. >> reporter: and our transportation contributor and thank you very much, the families of the passengers on board the missing plane were given the news before that announcement today. they were called into a closed door meeting with officials in malaysia an hour before the prime minister addressed the media and al jazeera, margaret

is in beijing with more on that meeting. >> the families of the passengers of malaysia mh 370 were called in a meeting by malaysia officials in beijing an hour before the prime minister of malaysia made the news public that the flight was indeed lost somewhere over the south indian ocean and news the relatives here had been waiting two weeks not to hear and holding on to hope for that long that possibly the plane was hijacked or had gone down due to technical difficulties. they were really trying to hold on to that because it meant possibly relatives on that flight might still be alive. this is the last thing they wanted to hear, many of them distraught, some of them have been brought out in stretchers, we understand people inside are fainting. it's actually quite chaotic there now. some relatives stepped out of the contrends room saying they needed to breathe, the last two weeks fell like they have been holding their breath in but this is the last thing they wanted to

hear. >> reporter: we are following more breaking news, this is coming out of washington state, authorities saying as many as 108 people could be missing, unaccounted for after the weekend mudslide and the death toll is eight and happened in a rural community not far from the town of arlington and we are there and allen these numbers are very, very disturbing. >> reporter: they certainly are, del, and we all need to be ready for the numbers to go higher and possibly considerably higher. just listening to emergency managers briefing the press behind me here and being very careful that 108 figure they say is 108 separate reports of people who are not accounted for. they have not collected all the lists that have been made and synchronized them and don't know for sure it means 108 people, there are 108 distinct reports they are chasing down. however, they say the slide which hit about 48 hours ago

happened on a saturday, mid morning, most people might have expected to be home, they are telling us there were 25 homes in that slide area that were occupied full time. there were also ten vacation homes. they don't know whether those people were there on that weekend. they had reports of contractors being in the area working. they don't have a specific number for those crews. so right now they are really just trying to collect all the reports, chase down all the leads and find out exactly how many people are missing. the official count which they say is fluid if you will, is 18 but we should all be ready for that to go considerably higher. search and rescue efforts continued overnight but since late saturday night there have been no indication of any survivors in the rubble and nobody found overnight and search crews are back in looking with helicopters and seen hover craft and dog teams are out as well so that search continues

and very difficult, very shifting terrain in the cascade mountains of western washington. not a good scene here, del, no miracles so far in the last 36 hours. >> and, there are concerns about the searchers and heard the mud being described as like quick sand. >> reporter: absolutely. this stuff came down and it was a rain-soak eed shoulder of a mountain that came down and the river of course just seeping down through it. so very soggy, very difficult to walk through and work through. of course it's just piled high with debris from the homes it destroyed and from the trees brought down in that slide. so very difficult, very dangerous terrain. the water will be seeping out and the river levels downstream from that earth and dam are about back to normal and the water is finding a way through the blockage and the moisture in the material will be sinking

down as well. so we do expect that through today it might be a little bit easier for crews to move around and operate in there but on the other hand we have rain, possibility of showers in the nine of the next ten days and it will stay wet in there. >> live from washington and the breaks news, 109 reports of people who are unaccounted for and we will continue to follow the story. chicago's blue mine commuter train going off the tracks during the busy monday morning commute, 8-car pile up happened under ground beneath the airport and went across a platform and scaled an escalator and dozens of people reporting minor injuries and none said to be life threatening. world leaders including the president meeting in europe for a nuclear summit, details next and ukrainian troops ordered out of crimea. meanwhile there are new questions about the crimea economy that are being raised. ♪

the crisis in ukraine is topping the agenda in the netherlands and the president is there meeting with leaders at the hague and talking about nuclear security but the crisis in ukraine on most minds and mike is there at the netherlands and discussing the problems with china president and any idea at this hour what came out of that meeting? >> well, del, you are right, this is a crucial three days in northern europe and the president has begun the marquis event the nuclear summit and 53 heads are gathered to talk about nuclear safety, what to do with some materials left over from the cold war for example and they had a string of agreements that were announced today, all that over shadowed by the news on ukraine. yes, the president began his day meeting with the host here, the prime minister of the

netherlands and mr. root and in amsterdam and the president saying he hopes to come away from these meetings with a united europe, united with the united states and sanctions and punishment and deterrent against russia to go further and has a marquis meeting later this afternoon and he called the meeting himself. g 7 nations of industrialized countries and not g 8 and rush what -- russia has sanctions and that is a very important distinction there, del, the president thinking ahead now as the russian troops are on the border of eastern ukraine, threatening eastern and southern ukraine to have a high concentration of russians and fear that putin's designs do not stop at crimea is the urgency the president brings to the meetings in the hague today,

del. >> are you getting a sense from the hague that everybody is on the same page concerning russia and its aggression in crimea? >> reporter: well, the white house certainly hopes so and the president will continue for another day here in the hague. he has more bilaterals planned with japan and south korea tomorrow and go on to an eu summit on brussels on wednesday and another crucial gathering and the issue of course is can the united states and eu come to some sort of agreement on sanctions, sanctions that will be seen is much more than a slap on the wrist to a handful of russians and sanctions that could take a serious bite out of russia economy and very sensitive here in europe and so much dependence on natural resources and trade going back $300 billion a year. so that is the key question. can they come away with an agreement and something that will defer fuhrer aggression by

putin in russia. >> mike in the netherlands and thank you and world leaders are discussing the crisis in ukraine the president ordered the troops out of crimea and more signs of russia's tight grip on the region and jennifer glasse is in sevastopol and jennifer it appears the russians are taking over base by base. >> reporter: that's right, del. we saw another take over this morning here. and a marine base in eastern crimea, the russians went in aggressively and took part of the base a few days ago but there were sailors holding out and the are such shuns went this aggressively using flash grenades and firing weapons and not a lot of weapons firing and taking over the base in eastern ukraine and a possibly flash point because there were weapons there and said they were unarmed at the time. and follows take overs over the weekend and took the navy

command ship, the last ship here in sevastopol that was holding out, that and with the crew of 100 people and also the air base, the biggest air base in crimea fell over the weekend as well with russians sending in armored personnel carriers and firing in the air and going aggressively to the base and the base was legendary here for the resistance because the hundred or so men on that base marched on the russians a couple of weeks ago with nothing but their flags and unarmed and marched forward to russians to try to get the jobs and base back and the base was lost as well as russia consolidates its power here. >> this has got to be devastating for the military members and families who are stuck in crimea so what happens to them now? >> reporter: well, there is a new order now from kiev, from the acting president alexander saying a plan is being put together to evacuate families and evacuate the service members. the order has not come down yet

here and they are aware of the order but it has not arrived in crimea yet. a lot of the people are ready to get out of crimea and very unhappy about what happened and would like to continue serving in the ukraine military but there are concerns and rumors among the community that any officers heading back to ukraine proper were being treated as traitors, were being put in jail, ukraine minister saying that is not true at all but there is very little ukrainian television and are not getting the message and calling to kiev and a lot of complaints they have not had much direction from kiev but the order is imminent they will order crimea forces out of crimea. >> and there are still russian troops who are along the eastern border, what is ukraine saying about them? >> reporter: that's right, kiev is very, very concerned about those troops on the border, about 20,000 of them ahead of nato and enough troops there to

move to maldova on ukraine's west. russia says for its part it is not violating any of the treaty obligations, it is allowed to have that number of troops on the border but it will make kiev nervous given what happened in crimea and given demonstrations we have seen and those have very, very significant pro-russian populations and some of the population has been calling for a referendum much like the one here in crime yeah that led to crimea becoming part of russia so that is not going to make kiev very happy at all, the combination of a little bit of unrest in those towns, repeated demonstrations as well as russian forces masked on the eastern border. >> reporter: live from sevastopol in crimea and thank you, two words that don't seem mutual is spring and snow in the forecast. >> that is in the forecast and

moving north but close enough to impact parts of the country and i'll have the details of the national forecast coming up.

♪

welcome back to al jazeera america, i'm del walters and here are your headlines at the hour, following breaking news, two hours ago malaysia prime minister saying the missing flight 370 crashed in the southern indian ocean and satellite data suggesting the plane went down and china demanding malaysia hanover all information regarding the flight and most passengers on board were chinese. the president is meeting with world leaders today at the netherlands discussing the issue of nuclear security but the crisis in ukraine is on most minds. the country's interim government saying it will withdraw troops from crimea and lawmakers say that russia growing military presence threatens the lives of military and families and washington state crews continue to look for any signs of life in the quick sand-like mud from the massive landslide there saturday, 8 people are did,

authorities now saying as many as 108 reports are being looked into of people who are still missing. crews are on the scene of an oil spill off the coast of texas, that spill has shut down one of the country's busiest sea ports the houston ship channel and trying to figure out how much oil has been spilled. the accident happening saturday when a barge carrying nearly a million gallons of crude collided with a ship. ♪ stocks are lower on wall street, the dow is down, 62 points, nasdaq falling 1 1/2 percent and resent high fliers like tesla and facebook taking hits here and dave is here, this is supposed to be spring. >> it is spring actually, it is. >> which part of the line do we have with march the lamb or lion? >> this storm is a big, powerful

storm yet to be developing and it will and intensify and it's just off the coast, bringing in cold area and a lot of snow with this but a lot staying out to sea and the next 24 hours starting tomorrow morning to wednesday morning where the storm will really intensify and the pressure drops rapidly and by tuesday early morning it's moving up the coast. by wednesday morning there is the heaviest snow. and it does clip parts of massachusetts and new england but the storm is off the coast and a lot of heavy rain and snow will be there. still heavy snow expected along the coast and less snow across the i-95 corridor and 1-5" but the wind is the big issue here. deep low pressure and lines of equal pressure and low pressure to high pressure and in between that wind very strong out of the north, northwest and brings in the cold air. there is another storm coming in and tracking further north, so that pushes up and it will

rebound nicely. this is the cold air wednesday evening and early thursday. but the warm air returns across the southern plains and moves to north and south dakota by wednesday night and bringing rain to the northeast. this is the snow expected. this is very low on the scale and the wind will pick up but the snow is light, 1-2" from baltimore, washington d.c., philadelphia to new york but the heavy snow along the coast, the purple color is 6-12" of snow tuesday to wednesday, specifically really late or early wednesday as the storm really winds up off the coast of canada and that is where we see the snow coming down and temperatures are cold low temperatures tuesday and early wednesday before they rebound a bit thursday and friday. another problem is the pacific northwest is a flood warning because of that landslide it really damed up the rivers out there and you see the flow dropping but now coming up, a bit, the initial fear was that water would all the sudden rush

to the landslide but that is not the case. >> you guaranty this is it, right? >> i cannot make guarantees like that but maybe it for the next two weeks. >> thank you very much and thank you for watching al jazeera america and i'm del walters and the street is next. you're in "the stream." one of america's largest college fraternities is ending it's practice of hazing recruits. the fraternity was reportedly with the most reported hazing deaths. and others are following suit. the decades long practice.