>> what a good friend. >> the little things that are helpful. >> 40 different driveways. he says he'll do as many as he can because he wants to help out his buddy. >> that's awesome. >> that's why it's the good stuff. >> will we be back tomorrow morning? >> we will. thank you so much for watching "new day" here. let's send it to the "newsroom" with carol costello. >> thank you. have a great day. have a great day. "newsroom" starts now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com happening now in the "newsroom." anger. outrage. and the sea of frustration. >> the malaysians have not been fully cooperative. >> they've basically done nothing right so far. they seemed to have dropped the ball. >> this morning vietnam fed up and pulling back from the operation. the size of the search and questions about it almost doubling overnight. using the latest technology. >> you can see doors or wings or

engines or something like that. >> trying to connect the dots and clear the clouds of con fugs over flight 370. you're live in the cnn "newsroom." good morning. i'm carol costello. thanks so much for joining me. we'll have the latest on the missing la maylaa -- malaysian yet. nick paton walsh is on the phone. bring me up to date. >> reporter: we moved away from a ukraine naval base. we witnessed in the past few hours a pretty intense standoff from russian troops that don't have the markings but they have the weaponry and vehicles that you would associate with thousands of russian troops the u.s. government says are here and ukrainian naval soldiers who the first time i've seen here

armed, their weapons loaded taking up defensive positions training their weapons on the russian soldiers who are training their weapons on them. one point until the russians moved towards the base down the side of it trying to intimidate the ukrainians. they sounded the alarm and one of the stations preparing to defend the base and then the russians moved into the street just straight down in front of the front entrance from the ukrainian base, lay a heavy machine gun on the floor in order to intimidate ukrainian soldiers inside and then quickly the instant de-escalated. the russians moved back in and pulled back. then strangely, carol, while we thought things had ended, we saw one, possibly two russian attack helicopters in the sky circling that particular town. remarkable tension there. actually seeing the two sides here with their weapons loaded trained on each other for a brief period. there the ukrainian soldiers clearly very worried. some locals sympathetic about a

russian force airline. now an often anti-russian ukraine main land. a tense moment here. many realize it pushed the remaining thousands of ukrainian troops out of their bases they may end up in some sort of force used by the russian soldiers here. today, purely intimidation. carol? >> nick paton walsh reporting live. let's turn to the search for malaysian airlines flight 370. few clues, puzzling confusion and bitter heart break for the families of the 239 people on board. here's the latest reason for their anguish. after spending five days searching the area beneath the intended path of a beijing bound flight, malaysia's military now says it may have radically changed course popping up as a blip on radar more than an hour later and hundreds of miles away. that means the search area doubles today as developments so baffling vietnam is scaling back

search efforts until malaysia gets its act together. >> you are getting increasing criticism now. you're searching east, you're searching west. you don't seem to know what you are seeing on a radar and it's taking you until now. >> i think that's true. >> i ask you, this is utter confusion now. >> i don't think so. i think it's far from it. it's only confusion if you want it to be seemed to be confusion. we are being -- we are being very clear. we have been very consistent -- >> you have no clue where to search. >> yes, in these two areas. >> how desperate have things become. a shaman or witch doctor says one malaysian leader enlisted this spiritual ceremony to uncover any clues. the witch doctor wasn't able to help malaysia's beleaguered government either. >> so far they seemed to have dropped the ball at every level. i hate to be the monday morning quarterback, but it appears as

if they've done nothing right so far. even if the -- you know, the navy was told about it yesterday, that's 48 hours after the fact. to me, every minute counts here. that was such a key point. the plane actually reversed course and was flying back over malaysia towards indonesia, i mean, why wasn't that made known? why weren't jets scrambled? why wasn't an alert put out on that immediately. >> so there's chaos, confusion and anger. there's no way to find 230 missing people. let's talk more about that. nic robertson is in london. cnn analyst tom fuentes is in washington. tom, i want to start with you. is it clear who's in charge of this investigation? is it the military? is it civilian authorities? >> right now in malaysia i think it's a combination of both that appear to be in charge and both control different radar systems which they're trying to match up and figure out from the two systems which is the most accurate and i think that's why they're now asking for ntsb

experts from the united states to come in and give them help, try and analyze their own radar data. but, again, as far as the investigation goes, it's still real important if there's any clue to find out if that plane was under the control of the captain with a mechanical problem trying to return to kuala lumpur airport and maybe they couldn't find it because they didn't have the navigation or if the plane had been taken and the transponder shut off deliberately but it was in perfectly functioning condition, if you can fly 560 miles an hour and if it can fly with enough fuel to go to beijing, the search radius could be 3,000 miles, not just a couple hundred miles. they could take that plane probably to hawaii if the pilots wanted to go there. >> i know. the area -- the search area has expanded now to 27,000 nautical miles. that's the size of indiana. nic, let me ask you this.

vietnam's vice minister of transportation says, quote, up until now we've only had one meeting with a malaysian military attache, however, the information that attache provided is insufficient. vietnam is now scaling back on its search efforts for and on behalf of malaysia which kind of says to me malaysia kind of has no idea where to search, right? >> there's confusion and that's undoubtedly why they need the help of the ntsb and the u.s. federal aviation authority who are going to be there and giving them assistance. their problem appears to be interpreting the data the military has. i have to say looking at that press conference today, the body language of the two military officials really showed that they were perhaps the lesser party at the table. you had the -- you had the minister of transport in the middle and the head of the civilian aviation on his other side who seemed pretty comfortable with what he was saying. there were many questions concerning the military and what they've done and what they know. one of the things is -- the

question is have they really seen flight mh 370 on their radar or is it something else? then, of course, there's the elephant in the room that won't be discussed here publicly by malaysian officials and that's the extent of their radar. so where they see this plane, they get the last ping from the plane at 2:15 a.m. in the morning on the trajectory they are at the moment estimating it was on, it doesn't mean the plane stopped there, it means potentially, potentially we have to say that's where they lost track of it and it could have passed out and continued as an unidentified aircraft across the sea as you say for up to 4,000 miles. so the focus is really going to be specifically are they right? is the military right on what it thinks was that flight? and the confusion we can see on the ground. they're still searching two wildly different areas, one to the east and one to the west of malaysia, carol. >> well, i want to ask you both about something else so stand by

for just a minute. the co-pilot of that missing jet is also in the spotlight this morning. now that a woman has come forward to say she and a friend entered the cockpit during a flight in 2011 at the request of the same co-pilot. she told cnn's piers morgan how it happened. >> tell me exactly what happened. you were on this flight and the co-pilot's name is farek abdul hamid. what happened? >> we were standing in line be at the boarding gate with all the other passengers waiting to board and the co-pilot and pilot came back and asked us if we would like to sit with them in the cockpit during the flight and we said, yes. we boarded the plane normally with all the other passengers and went to our seat. a short while after taking our seats the hostest asked us if we wanted to meet with the pilot and we did. >> now malaysia airlines says it

has not been able to confirm this woman's story but it is raising question. after 9/11, cockpit doors are locked on u.s. flights. are they on international flights, too? >> i think most of the aircraft have that in place even though this was not a plane that made a normal route to the united states, but what's interesting here is that if not necessarily just these ladies but if the crews of malaysian airlines allow visitors, let's just say they allow a visitor to enter into the cockpit during flight time, then that means one of the other passengers on this flight could have been invited in and then took over and then locked everybody else out. so that just raises the problem that, you know, if you build a fortress around the cockpit, it doesn't do you any good if you open the door and let people in. >> that is true. so, nick, this co-pilot is 27 years old. some say he's known as a playboy in the skies. what more do we know about him?

>> well, she's also said that she found the whole thing a bit sleazy, that they -- the co-pilot invited the two young girls to stay a few extra nights in kuala lumpur so they could entertain them. their assessment is he had sort of a professional control and he knew what he was doing in the cockpit yet the behavior they found that he wasn't at all times looking out at the front of the cockpit. it absolutely raises -- raises very, very serious questions about the security of the cabin and who could have been let in. i think we need to be clear of one thing here. certainly if the aircraft turned around as is being indicated at the moment by the military and malaysia, that whoever was flying the plane knew what they were doing, that they knew how to fly a plane. and this seems to be one of the certainties apart from was the plane essentially on an auto

pilot at that time? had the plane taken over? were the people in the cabin incapacitated in some way? so whether or not he acts and follows around like a playboy, somebody in that cabin was able to control the aircraft for a considerable amount of time it appears at least, carol. >> all right. we'll discuss the -- discuss all of this much more later on in the "newsroom." thanks to you both. nic robertson and tom fuentes. the malaysian government is reaching out to the faa and the ntsb asking for help analyzing radar information. rene marsh is in washington with more on that side of the story. good morning. >> good morning, carol. it's day five and still nothing and today the malaysian authorities acknowledge that they need more help from the experts. take a listen to a press briefing that just happened just a few hours ago. >> the way forward, ladies and gentlemen, is to bring experts to analyze the civilian and

military data in the east or in the west, on land or in the water, and this is exactly what we are doing today. >> all right. well, we do know there are three ntsb investigators in the region. they've been there since monday, but there wasn't a whole lot that they've been able to do since the plane is still missing. the faa, which has expertise in air traffic control, is also there. we also know boeing, the manufacturer of this 777 is there to answer any questions about the plane's technology, how it works, the capability of the plane, but to be very clear, carol, they are asking -- they are not asking, i should say, the ntsb to lead the investigation because the investigation hasn't officially started yet and it will not until they find the plane. if the plane is found in international waters, then malaysia will take the lead since the plane is -- since the plane belongs to them. however, if the plane is found

in waters under another country's jurisdiction, that country will take the lead. but we won't cross that bridge until they find the plane. carol? >> and that just may add more confusion, rene marsh, thanks so much. >> sure. as the malaysian government faces sharp criticism for its handling of the search, the prime minister is asking relatives of the missing to remain calm. >> translator: what we want to tell the families is that we must, indeed, consider their feelings. the families involved have to understand that this is something unexpected. the families must understand more efforts have been made with all our capabilities. >> david mckenzie spoke with some of those families. he joins me now live from beijing. david, i'm not so sure that i would find the words from the prime minister comforting. >> reporter: well, carol, that's exactly right. the families in beijing, more than 2/3 on that plane from

china. the families are hold up in a hotel here near the airport. they've been waiting for hours, then days. frustration, sadness. it's all now boiling up and becoming anger. take a look. when the hours turn into days, the pain spills out. i can still call my son's phone, this man cries out. you need to search for him quickly. meetings with airline officials are tense, at times angry. hundreds of family members want answers, but there are few to give, so they cling on to hope. >> when there's not the final closure, i think any ray of hope, even however remote or however improbable, many of these people will still hold onto it. >> reporter: airline officials have pledged to send close family members to the staging ground of the search in malaysia, but few of them want to go. not until the plane is found.

>> translator: i'm not going home until i know what happened. we've lost loved ones and they need to answer our questions. when are you going to tell us and what are you going to do? we still don't know if they are alive or dead. >> reporter: as the extraordinary search effort continues, dozens of planes, boats, and nations haven't been able to give these family members what they wants to know, an answer of any kind. while the search for this plane is a big mystery to all of us, it's less theoretical and more very real for these families, carol. they just want answers. they're not getting them. we even spoke to one woman who says she hopes the plane was hijacked because she thinks maybe her son is alive and many are still trying to call cell phones, call mobile phones saying that they can get through, though that's just a quirk of technology, we believe. it shows the desperate need of

these families. we did try to interview one family later this evening here in china, but the police, in fact, stopped us from talking to them. so this is all still very sensitive here in china, and pointed criticism even from the chinese government towards the search and rescue efforts. carol? >> david mckenzie reporting live from beijing. still to come in the "newsroom", it's been five days since malaysia flight 370 vanished. as the mystery continues, conspiracy theories are still flooding the internet. >> from the plausible to the outlandish. people are coming up with all kinds of theories as to what may have happened to flight 370. we'll take a look right after this break. captain obvious: i'm in a hotel. and a hotel is the perfect place to talk to you about hotels. all-you-can-eat is a hotel policy that allows you to eat all that you can. the hotel gym is short for gymnasium. the hotel pool is usually filled with water.

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as the search for missing malaysia airlines flight 370 continues the mystery is growing and so are the conspiracy theories. from a meteor to web abduction, the web is full of conjecture. pamela brown joins me from washington to tell us more. good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you, carol. that's right. all the unknowns are sort of fueling the fire. with this mystery continuing into yet another day, people are cooking up all kinds of theories and they're spreading like wild fire over the internet. this as family members desperately search for answers and cling to hope. the agonizing wait taking a terrible toll on hundreds of families who still have no idea what happened to their loved ones and with the wreckage

missing, speculation is swirling. outlandish theories about flight 370 surfacing over the internet and media. aliens? international kidnapping? a hollywood stunt for the remake of "lost?" >> it's accelerated because of the internet and the international theory. >> reporter: another theory, a meteor took the plane down. there have a known meteor in the area at the time the plane took off. could it have hit the plane? given what we know about the erratic flight path, highly unlikely. then there's the miraculous. it might have lapped on a rocky outcrop and the passengers are still alive. family members are saying their missing loved one's cell phones are still ringing. is there anyone on the other end of those calls? doubtful, but it does give the loved ones of the vanished

plane's passengers a place to put their hope. >> and, carol, conflicting information coming out of malaysia seems to be spurring some of these conspiracy theories. you know, people often hone in on the irregularities and odd tis in any disaster to weave a larger theory that would help them make sense of it. when you have a dirth of information, people want to fill it. just like 9/11, the jfk assassination and other plane crashes. >> let's talk about the ringing cell phones. everyone says it's a technical glitch but what is the technical glitch? >> well, i'm not an expert with technology, but as we heard david mckenzie say it could be a fluke. i've been overseas before but my phone doesn't ring and people can call and the phone will ring. doesn't mean i can answer my phone or hear it. so it's just a technical fluke, if you will it appears to be, or it could be something else. we simply don't know.

as you heard in the piece, that's what family members are really trying to -- they're clinging to hope and they're sort of looking for answers and your heart really goes out to them. >> that it does. pamela brown reporting live from washington. an airliner drops off the radar. dozens of nations search for it. why in this age of high tech gadgets has the search turned up nothing. brian todd is in washington with that side of the story. >> reporter: carol, we're going to take a look at why the high tech gadgets on that plane are of little use in this search. we'll look at some of the technology, the incredible technology that is being deployed to find this plane. that story is just ahead. [ cellphones beeping ] ♪ [ cellphone rings ] hello? [ male announcer ] over 12,000 financial advisors. good, good. good. over $700 billion dollars in assets under care. let me just put this away. [ male announcer ] how did edward jones get so big? could you teach our kids that trick?

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good morning, everyone. i'm carol costello. thanks so much for joining me. the search for malaysia airlines flight 370, dozens of ships and planes are canvassing almost 30,000 square miles. there are no solid leads, and with the search now in day five we're kicking around a pretty simple question. in today's electronic age, how does an airliner of that size simply disappear? cnn's brian todd is here. >> reporter: good morning. that is a critical question right now. there's also some incredible technology being deployed to find this plane, from military aircraft with infrared capability to a website that you and i can go on to help in this search. this effort is very high tech and has global reach and that's crucial now since the plane's own technology seems to have shut down completely.

in the digital age when we've got gps and our cell phones in cars, how do you lose an airplane? malaysia airlines flight 370 also had gps and a trans ponder sending signals. the jet was tracked by radar but now that we know the transponder signal was not operational when the plane disappeared -- >> it's not going to do anything anymore. once it's gone off, it's not going to come back on. from the gps standpoint, all that is is mainly for the aircraft to know where it is, for the pilots to know where they are. there's not something inherent in the gps that says, here i am over here. >> reporter: this is now a high tech search. pentagon officials tell cnn the navy is using mh 60 helicopters, at least one orion helicopter in the air. they can detect movement. the pentagon won't say if it's using military satellites but

safety consultant william mckay says they are using that taking high res photos. >> they can be very precise right down to the size of a car or less than that if they need be. you can see doors, wings, engines, something like that. they also have the capability of using the maritime or the navy assets using sonar. >> reporter: and the public's being pulled into a high tech search through crowd sourcing getting a service by enlisting large groups of people online. digital globe is using satellites to take high res pictures of the area where the jet might have gone down. they're inviting anywhere to go on to their platform called tomnad to help search. >> they see small segments of the satellite image in an incredibly zoomed in fashion. they are then invited to drop tags and pins where they see either a boat, an oil slick, an

area with debris. >> reporter: now on the back end, when digital globe collects a certain volume of reliable tags in one area of a picture, they share that with authorities. they've gotten about a million page views per hour. the traffic has been so heavy the website has had difficulty staying up. >> carol. i know i tweeted out their website and a lot of people tweeted me back saying, we just can't get onto the site. it's because so many people are logging on. the question is, is it helpful to authorities? >> reporter: well, there's a question about reliability. when you're pulling in that many people, is everybody going to have a reliable tag? that's always an issue when you're doing crowd sourcing. the digital globe people say on their end they have ways of determining who's reliable, who's not reliable. what's going on in a particular image. they have algorithms that look at overlap regions of a picture where people are dropping a lot of tags and they look at what images people agree on. they do all of this in a matrix and cross reference everything and that's how they come up with an area where they might be able

to alert authorities. our people are looking at something in this picture. you might want to look at this. it's pretty incredible. >> going back to your original premise. we still can't find this plane, we have all of this technology. it's up to people, really, to focus the search and maybe then the technology will work. you can't really take people out of the equation. >> reporter: that's right. technology is a tool. we have to always remember that. you know, i've been reading the past couple of days that radar doesn't even work very well when you're over water a few hundred miles off shore, so you have to have the mentality it does take people. it takes the eyeballing. going over the miles and miles of territory in the ocean to do this and then using technology as a tool to help. >> brian todd reporting live from washington. thanks so much. still to come in the "newsroom," a congressional show down in the swing state of florida and the republican party comes out on top. dana bash is there. good morning, dana. >> reporter: good morning, carol. the republican who won said it's

all about local issues and the constituents here. tell that to his republican leaders in washington. i'll have more on that after the break. do more with less with less energy. hp is helping ups do just that. soon, the world's most intelligent servers, designed by hp, will give ups over twice the performance, using forty percent less energy. multiply that across over a thousand locations, and they'll provide the same benefit to the environment as over 60,000 trees. that's a trend we can all get behind.

36 minutes past the hour. riot police and protesters clashed in turkey's capital today. police fired tear gas and water cannons after crowds tried to block a major intersection. thousands of demonstrators turned out for the antigovernment protest. one of many across the country.

outrage erupted after a teenage boy died tuesday from injuries he sustained in antigovernment unrest last summer. it's believed the boy's head injury was caused by a police tear gas canister. frightening pictures coming to us out of san francisco this morning. dozens of people in the city's mission bay neighborhood have been forced to flee their homes after searing heat popped the windows in their houses. they're waiting for the scene to stop smoldering before they can search for what sparked the five alarm blaze. no injuries reported. to politics. the state of florida where republicans are savoring their first congressional victory. david jolly has defeated his democratic opponent in a high profile special election viewed by the gop at least as a referendum on obamacare. and jolly got a little bit of help from a beloved game show host and supporter, that would be bob barker.

>> hello, pinilis county. i'm bob barker and i wish i could be there with you folks tonight, but i would like to say two things. one, help control the pet population. have your pet spayed or neutered. two, words that i have waited months to speak. congressman david jolly, come on down! >> they then played the theme from "the price is right." and david jolly came on down. it was a lot of fun. chief congressional correspondent dana bash is there. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, carol. there are a lot of questions about whether rand paul did a robo call helped. my guess is he had nothing on bob barker. a lot of focus on this. a lot of analyzing the results

here. david jolly when he gave his speech last night, he made it very clear that this is about local issues. didn't even mention obamacare at all and the fact that he as a republican opposes it and supports this repeal. but republicans in washington spent no time -- wasted no time, rather, jumping on it saying they believe the message that republicans on the outside spent millions of dollars pouring in in tv ads about repealing obamacare is the way to go is -- the fact that the republican won here, it is proof that their decision to really go all in on that message for the fall is validated and they are absolutely going to do that. now on the democratic side, to be fair, alex sync, the candidate, was somebody who supported obamacare but definitely said she wanted to have changes to it. she sort of supported the fix it don't end it approach. that is also something that democrats, particularly those who are already in office and trying to defend their seats, especially in the senate which

is really up for grabs, they've been arguing, too. so we're going to look for whether or not this spooks them, the fact that the democrat tried that message, it didn't work here in a district that republicans are reminding us president obama actually narrowly won two elections in a row even though the seat was held in republican hands for 43 years before this special election, carol. >> dana bash reporting live from florida. thanks so much. still to come in the noesi r "newsroom," prosecutors simulate their theory on how he killed his girlfriend. they brought in the actual door that pistorius fired those fatal shots through. is it enough to seal their case? life with crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis

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dramatic events in the oscar pistorius murder trial. the very door, the bathroom door that pistorius shot his girlfriend through, and the cricket bat he used to try to break the door down after the shooting allegedly stopped. a forensic investigator also got down on his knees to hit the door to simulate pistorius doing it without his prosthetic legs on. cnn legal analyst kelly phelps joins us with more. good morning, kelly. >> reporter: good morning. >> what were prosecutors trying to establish here? >> reporter: the state was clearly trying to establish that pistorius was on his stumps, not on his prosthetic legs, when he hit the door with the cricket bat, and this would be in contradiction to pistorius's affidavit at the bail hearing where he claimed that he had shot with his stumps, but that when he had hit the door with

his cricket bat he had put his prosthetic legs on. it contradicted the defense where they claimed that he had shot reeva steenkamp with his prosthetic legs on. >> so pistorius says he fired the shot, realized it was reeva in the bathroom and that's when you said he went to put his prosthetic legs on. there is a time line here. can you really tell whether he was standing by just looking at the angle of the marks on the door? i mean, can you really determine that? >> reporter: you can't necessarily determine it for sure. sometimes with this kind of forensic evidence you can rule it out. for example, if those marks had been much lower down it would have made it almost impossible to get his prosthetic legs on. with the nature of these markings on the door, we can't really say for sure one way or the other and ultimately it will

come down to the interpretation of the state's expert witness on the one hand and the defense's expert witness on the other hand and the judge will have to decide which version of events she finds more compelling. >> and just one last question. i just find it curious that the bathroom door was locked. >> reporter: well, you know, this is something that people have focused on, the fact that the door was locked, but the truth is from a legal perspective, even from a human perspective, we really can't read anything from that. sometimes people just have strange habits and they do things that seem unusual to other people. and equally, if you use the state's argument that she had locked herself to protect herself from him, then one can say, why hadn't she fled out of the bathroom door? so what it tells us is that it really doesn't tell us anything for sure. >> kelly phelps, thanks for your insight. we appreciate it. still to come on the

"newsroom," a louisiana man walks free after spending nearly 30 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. martin savidge has that story. good morning, martin. >> reporter: a man who spent so much time behind bars and not just in prison, but he's on death row for nearly 30 years. we'll have his first words on freedom in just a minute. people don't have to think about where their electricity comes from. they flip the switch-- and the light comes on. it's our job to make sure that it does. using natural gas this power plant can produce enough energy for about 600,000 homes. generating electricity that's cleaner and reliable, with fewer emissions-- it matters. ♪

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. . the bell rang just about 20 minutes ago. wall street looking at a second day of losses. the dow taking a dive following that opening bell as investors worry about a slowdown in china. you can see the dow down almost 80 points. christine romans is following the story. >> i would say there is a real calm in the market this week. not the wild days like we saw last week. still, the dow retreating today. it had been 125 points of a record high. you have not been seeing much enthusiasm of the buyers. i have been watching shares of boeing since the malaysian

airlines flight disappear. you could see that the maker of that plane was down. you could see the stock down 2% yesterday, 8% so far year to date. a couple of things there. the 777, that malaysian airlines plane is pretty much the safest plane in the air. it has a very, very good safety record. you know that the team at boeing and among investigators want to find that aircraft and find out what happened here. also, it is a dreamliner. the much-hyped dreamliner had some production problems, hairline cracks in its wings. they are going to have to step back and address and fix that problem. that's another problem with the stock there. really watching those boeing shares too, carol. >> i want to touch on something else tanned has to do with how much money we all make. president obama is currently pushing his labor department to try to force corporations to pay

workers more overtime pay. at the very same time, they are going to pay us about bonus checks for the leaders of the corporations. so hit us. >> this is wall street bankers in particular. not necessarily ceos of those corporations. wall street bankers. new york state looks at these numbers. they have tracked them per state revenue. record wall street bonuses for 2013 up 15%. typical bonus, something like $165,000. the third highest on record. again, the best bonus here for wall street since 2008. the stock market went up a lot last year. some of that performance would be based on how great the stock market was. another thing to remember is that wall street also leading the industry in job cuts. some people losing their jobs on wall street. some people getting huge

bonuses. i think the bonus numbers really shock the typical worker. the highest since 2008, the third highest on record. >> i don't think they shock anyone anymore. it is just whatever. >> i am shocked. i think $165,000 is a lot of money for a bonus. a big chunk of your money is bonus but it's a big bonus the latest on the search for the malaysian airlines flight in a moment. first, louisiana's longest serving death row prisoner is a free man. glenford was released yesterday after spending nearly 30 years behind bar force a murder he did not commit. cnn's martin savidge following that story. >> this is a tragedy, a clear miscarriage of justice, not only wrongfully imprisoned but on death row. now, he is finally free.

here is the story. louisiana's longest serving death row prisoner walked free tuesday after spending nearly 30 years behind bars for a murder he did not commit. does glenford harbor any resentment? >> yeah, because i was locked up almost 30 years for something i didn't do. >> reporter: according to the capital post conviction project, a judge ordered him free monday after prosecutors petitioned them to release him. he has maintained for decades that he was not present at nor involved in the november, 1983 slaying of 53-year-old isadore roseman. his lawyer says it is justice delayed but he is happy the day finally arrived. >> we have been working on this for decades, literally. we hope it will be the first day for glen to start a new life.

>> reporter: ford was on death row since 1983. >> 30 years of my life,if not all of it. i can't go back. my son, when i left, was a baby. now, they grown men with babies. >> a powerful thing to say there. the district attorney's office saying there was some new evidence that came to life that clearly showed he was not the person that carried out the murder of this jewelry store operator and that he wasn't there, the reason he has been set free. of course, it means this crime, now unsolved. >> what does he do now? >> he came and somebody asked him. what's the first thing you are going to do? he said, i'm going to go eat. obviously, a very human reaction. restitution is a big question. can he sue? will he sue? under the laws in the state of louisiana, he could get $250,000, maybe an additional $80,000. compared to 30 years of your life, gone, never to come back. what's the value of that? >> you can't place any value of

that. that's just awful. martin savidge. death row stories and some original cnn series, unraveling the truth behind capital murder cases, you can watch an episode tonight at 10:00 eastern. i'm back in a minute. can use n. even if you slip up... so you can reach your goal. [ male announcer ] now, quit on your own terms with nicorette or nicoderm cq. [ ship horn blows ] no, no, no! stop! humans. one day we're coming up with the theory of relativity, the next... not so much. but that's okay. you're covered with great ideas like optional better car replacement from liberty mutual insurance. total your car, and we give you the money to buy one a model year newer. learn about it at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? but we're not staying in the kitchen. just start the slow cooker, add meat and pour in campbell's slow cooker sauce.

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happening now in the "newsroom," anger, outrage, and a sea of frustration. >> reporter: the malaysians have not been fully cooperative. >> they have done nothing right so far. they seem to have dropped the ball. >> reporter: vietnam fed up and pulling back from the operation. the size of the search and questions about it almost doubling overnight.

using the latest technology. >> you can see doors or wings or engines or anything like that. >> reporter: try to connect the dots and clear the clouds of confusion over flight 370. you are live in the "cnn newsroom." is good morning. i'm carol costello. thank you so much for joining me. we begin this hour with the search for malaysia airlines flight 370. few includes and a puzzling level of confusion. after spending five days searching the area beneath the intended path of the beijing-bound flight, malaysian's military says it may have radically changed course popping up as a blip on radar more than an hour later hundreds of miles away. the search doubles today. a development so baffling, vietnam is scaling back search efforts. reporters aren't getting clear

answers either. >> you are getting increasing criticism. your searching east. you are searching west. you don't seem to know what you have seen on radar and it has taken you until five days later. >> that's not true. >>. >> reporter: this is utter confusion now. >> i don't think so. it is far from it. it is only confusion if you twant to be sewant it to be con. >> reporter: you know where you need to search? >> how desperate have things b can a shaman or witch doctor said one malaysian leader enlisted this spiritual sceremoy to uncover any clues. no one seems to have able to help them. >> they have dropped the ball at every level. it appears they have basically done nothing right so far. even if the navy was told about

it yesterday, that's 48 hours after the fact. every minute counts. that was such a key point if the plane was reversing course. why wasn't that made known? why wasn't an alert put out on that immediately? >> good questions. the families of those missing want answers but they are not getting any anywhere. they are not getting any answers. they are growing more and more frustrated. i know you have talked to some of those families. what are they telling you? >> reporter: well, carol, they will are telling us that they are holding out on hope even though that has dimmed some five days after the planes vanished over vietnam air space. the families are desperate and the frustration and anger is boiling over. the hours turn into days. the pain spills out. i can still call my son's mobile

phone, this man cries out. you need to search for him quickly. meeting with airlines officials are tense, at times angry. hundreds of family members want answers. there are few to give. they cling to hope. >> it is not the final closure. any ray of hope, however remote or improbable, many of these people will still hold on to it. airline officials have pledged to send close family members to the stage area in malaysia. few want to go until the plane is found. >> i'm not going home until i know what happened. we have lost loved once. they need to answer our questions. when are you going to tell us and what are you going to do? we still don't know if they are alive or dead. >> reporter: as the extraordinary search effort continues, dozens of planes,

boats, and nations haven't been able to give these family members what they want to know, an answer of any kind. david mckenzie with that report. apparently, we are going right to the breaking news. this is our affiliate wabc, out of new york city. there has been an explosion at a building at 116th in park avenue. east harlem residents reported hearing a large explosion in an apartment building around 9:00 eastern. fire was reported. the structural integrity was compromised in this building. it is also affecting trains going in and out of grand central station. specially those headed from grand central to connecticut.

we don't know what caused this yet. when she arrives on the scene, we will provide much more for you. we are going back to the plane investigation. malaysia flight 370. we want to talk a little bit about the investigation. our nic robertson is in london. welcome to both of you, mick, i want to start with you. it is unclear who is in charge of this investigation. is it the malaysian military or civilian authorities. >> it seems to me the civilian authorities. when you look at the press conference, there was the air force chief, the army chief, the minister of transport, the civil aviation chief and the ceo. it was the transport minister who was leading it.

the military looked somewhat trite. why didn't they react to an unidentified aircraft flying back across the country and questions on have they been able to interpret the data. they say they have. he this believe it is the data of the aircraft making that turn and coming back across malaysia and the issue it basically disappears off the radar. no one knows how far it has gone. it does seem the civil thorlts are in charge. we heard the chief of the air force kind of walking back what he had reportedly sent to journalists the day before. kind of an indication he was getting a wrap over the knuckles there. >> robert, it seems as if the military ought to be able to answer some of these questions, specially as far as if the plane did make that turn. now, they are walking back on it. it seems some people are leaking information that is incorrect. then, they are walking back on

it 12 hours later. >> well, carol, i don't think they know what they saw on that radar. it could have been another aircraft. the military in malaysia probably wasn't tracking a civilian flight. their information is unreliable. i think what the problem is, there is just no debris field. if the plane had simply catastrophic problem on the plane and went down or there was a terrorist attack, there should have been a debris field in the ocean. we can speculate all we want. it almost looks now like this thing went down over land. maybe it did make a turn. i think to the question of terrorism, as john brennan said yesterday, the c.i.a. director, we can't rule it out. a potential hijacking as well. someone got in there and turned the transponder off right away. we don't know. it remains a mystery. >> i understand that malaysian officials have called on the

ntsb to help. how much of a role will they have in this investigation, do you think? and the faa. i think the hope is by drawing in more international ex prts, they may be able to interpret the data they have. did this aircraft really make a u-turn. it disappeared off the civil aviation radar and assumed that it was this plane or believed to be it was this plane picked up on the military radar. someone has to drill down and interpret the data. that would be very sensitive for the military in any country. offer up some information and say to some civilian agencies, come and interpret this for us. the sensitivities are there. the expertise appears to be what they need. the transport minister was saying, he welcomed the addition

of these countries. one of the perhaps key indicators here of the confusion is that they are search willing in two seas but that indian has joined this. >> i think we lost nic robertson. thanks so much. we got the gist of your conversation. nic robertson, robert berra, thanks so much. there are multiple report of a building explosion. there was some sort of explosion in the east harlem section of manhattan, around 116th and park avenue. traffic between the 125th metro north station and grand central station has been stopped. information, as you might expect, is trickling in. this from wabc, our affiliate in new york city. we understand there has been at least one injury. police called a level two

mobilization for crowd control. con edison is responding to shut off the gas in this area. these are twitter pictures coming into us. you see the smoke rising from that building at 116th and park avenue. they have elevated tracks through that area. the new haven line service into and out of grand central terminal is temporarily suspended until furth notice. we don't have much information as of yet. one of our producers, adam reiss, is on the scene right now. do we have him on the phone yet. he is seconds away. apparently, pop by harlow is also on her way to the scene. you can see this thick, black smoke pouring from the building. very disturbing pictures.

adam, you on the phone now? hello. describe the scene for us, adam. >> reporter: there are a number of firefighters here. i'm at 116th between madison and park. they are still making their way into the explosion. all buildings devastated, windows blown out. they have at least three or four hook and ladders up at the scene. can i ask you what the latest is for their lives? >> three. >> reporter: many cars covered in soot, cars with blown-out windows, doors with bloep-out windows. we haven't seen this kind of smoke in a fire here in new york city in a very long time. certain parts of the area are thinning out. heavy smoke still covers at least a three-block radius here.

that's about what i can tell you now. most emergency personnel all have masks on because the smoke is so heavy. people are being evacuated from all neighboring buildings. they are still making their way into the explosion, the building where the explosion took place. i can't really tell due to the smoke exactly how much damage that particular building suffered. a lot of emergency personnel. fire personnel putting out fires. a lot of damage on the street. blown-out car windows, blown-out store windows and very heavy smoke coming from the building. the fire department is still trying to get under control. >> i probably have a better picture of the building than you do, because you are probably not able to get very close. police are obviously cordoning

the scene. are you hearing it might involve other buildings as well? >> reporter: very heavy smoke is still coming out of the building, very, very heavy smoke is what i can tell you from here. at least four fire engines with their ladders going into the building. they are being blocked by the heavy smoke. it's really can't tell what's causing such heavy smoke. all emergency personnel wearing masks here. very heavy smoke. they are knocking out glass windows in stores and a lot of glass windows in some of the residents here as they evacuate all the residents and people that work in the stores along this street, along 116th between madison and park. >> adam, this building where the explosion took place, was it

occupied? >> reporter: i can't really tell. because of the heavy and dark smoke, you can't tell what type of a building it was. i can't tell from my vantage point. >> wabc is reporting it was an apartment building. poppy harlow is also on the phone. are you with me? >> reporter: carol, i'm with you. >> what are you seeing? >> reporter: i'm on 116th and madison between madison and park, which is the block where firefighters are fighting this right now i just spoke with a firefighter that told me it was multiple buildings, confirming, multiple buildings. we do not know more than that how many. we do not know if they were residential, how many people were inside of them. as adam was just saying to our viewers, i have lived in new york city for 11 years. i haven't seen smoke like this anywhere in this area. we are east of columbia university. we are in east harlem.

116th street and east harlem. we are told that this explosion happened somewhere around 9:30 eastern time. coming up here, listening to local news reports, witness accounts on the radio here, one woman called from frederick douglass boulevard, which is about 2 to 3 avenues, which are long, long blocks from where i am. she said she heard the explosion this morning. so that gives you a sense of the magnitude, how big this was. also, one of the main train lines out of new york city, called the metro north, that runs right in this area. we would track it above ground. another person also called in for the local news saying there was debris on the tracks. just to give you the sense of the magnitude. i tried to walk up to the building and got about half a block away and watts turns turn by the police. as adam said, everyone is

wearing masks right now. extremely heavy smoke. so much so that when i got even a block away, i was coughing. that's the scene. are people seeing aerial pictures of this yet? >> we are. we have an aerial picture courtesy of wabc. we see a large hole in the middle of this large building on 116th. i can't tell whether the apartment building is occupied. maybe they were evacuated. maybe it was under construction. i don't know and don't want to speculation. wabc is reporting one minor injury. there could be more. it could be a gas line. it could be something else. is anyone talking about that yet on the scene, poppy. >> they are not yet. >> we literally just arrived. no comment right now. we are obviously making more

calls. the fire department. i will take a minute and talk to some people on the street. there are shoppers and residents, all wondering what's happening. there are well over a dozen ambulances and fire trucks. what i am not seeing at this point, carol, though, is any stretchers, any carrying anyone that may have been injured out. i am not seeing that at this time. that doesn't mean that hasn't happened. i am telling you, we north seeing that from our vantage point at 116th and madison and east harlem. >> do i still have adam on the line? i have adam on the line. poppy, you go ask people questions and i will get back to you. we just heard from fdny. fire officials. there were 11 minor injuries. poppy reported multiple buildings are involved in this. some kind of explosion happened at 116th and park avenue in east

harlem. what more have you been able to find out, adam? >> reporter: nothing more. some of this smoke does seem to be clearing on the streets. we still see heavy smoke coming from the roof or whatever was left from that building. i see some ems units pulling out. like poppy said, we haven't seen since we arrived any people coming out on stretchers. we see numerous ambulances, sitting there waiting for potential injuries. thus far, from what we have got here, we don't see any. to repeat, heavy smoke still emanating from that building at 116th, between madison and park. numerous fire personnel at the scene trying to make their way inside. i see a fireman making room to provide more water to the scene. as the wind shifts, the smoke is

shifting. right now, the wind is shifting to the west and we're seeing more smoke coming our way. more emergency personnel arriving. a lot of people talking about what they saw, what they heard. a very loud explosion that rocked the neighborhood. poppy is talking to a few of them now. they didn't know what it was. just trying to get a sense of how soon they can put whatever fire that is still emanating from that building out and the smoke will clear. >> they are pouring lots and lots of water. they are up on ladders, adam. i have a different vantage point than you do with this live, aerial picture. you can see the firefighters pouringing water in what was this building. they are on the roof of the building next door it appears. they are sort of checking things

out right now. they are pouring a lot of water on the building. you mentioned before a lot of car windows gloen out nearby. describe the surrounding scene to us. >> reporter: a lot of glass all over the street here. the smoke is somewhat toxic. that's why you see a lot of the emergency personnel, fire department personnel. several cars with glass blown out. i'm not sure exactly why that glass was blown out. it could potentially be from what appears to be a very large

explosion as described by a lot of the residents here. still trying to locate someone who can tell us what's going on exactly at the scene. the firefighters still there on three or four hook and ladders getting into that building. we are watching the fire department captain here opening up the hydrant for more and more water to get to the scene. >> just to recap, some sort of explosion has occurred in east harlem, in that building you are looking at right there. poppy harlow reports, multiple buildings are involved. multiple buildings are damaged. the fdny told us there are 11 minor injuries so far. there could be more. this is all taking place at 116th between park and madison in east harlem. i am going to turn things over now to my colleague, chris cuomo. he will take over from here. take it away, chris. >> we are going to monitor the situation carefully.

let's give you a reset. you are looking at a live picture of manhattan from our affiliate, wabc. in our partner in this story, it has been going on for half an hour. this was the site of two con g contiguous buildings, joined with one wall. there is believed to be a major explosion in at least one of the buildings. firehouses are involved, at least four. firefighters say they have the situation under control. what is that situation? you see the obvious smoke. they are saying that a lot of the smoke is coming from their efforts to put out what seems to have been an explosion. there is a debris field that goes on elevated railroad tracks. service has been suspended. there are firefighters on top of the building on each side. why? because they want to make sure there is no damage of fire and continued burning that winds up contaminating or spreading to those buildings. the two buildings involved are

pre-war, meaning they date before the 1940s. older buildings, generally oil burning buildings. that cob a clue. there is not much more of a pattern to join that. these were called multiple use buildings. on the storefront level, at 116th street and park avenue, you will see these two buildings. on the bottom, one was a spanish-christian church. the other was a piano repair shop. on top of each were four or five levels of apartments, usually somewhere between 2-4 apartments per floor. that is fueling the immediate concerns about injuries. so far, two surrounding hospitals who are expecting casualties. the numbers are low. control room, do we have a fire official on? we have tom van esen, who is the

former commissioner of the nysd. commissioner, can you hear me? it is chris cuomo, new york. my understanding from the brothers on the street is that they have it basically under control. it is multiple houses responding. do you have any fresher information? >> you can see how difficult it is for them as that smoke gets lighter. that part of the fire is out. some of the other stuff, the darker stuff, is really nasty smoke. it looks like it is pretty toxic. they are having trouble getting that part of the fire out. they want to get in there as quick as they can. the people in there now will be seriously injured if they are. hopefully, none of them are caught in the immediate explosion. they want to get the folks out of there. it will kill them if the explosion didn't. it is a tough job. hard to get in there with all that debris. it looks like it has collapsed. twit a few apartments above the ground floor. an awful lot of debris to get in there underneath. >> we are in a major trafficked

area here. this is 116th, 116th and park avenue. highly trafficked. the elevated railroad adjacent to it. these are con ttiguous building. what is the expectation judging by the smoke, the explosion and the level of collapse about what the possibilities of cause are here? >> well, right away, you think it is gas, because it is just such a violent explosion. you see that the debris everywhere is probably where the minor injuries came from in the beginning. anybody that was caught in the blast directly has probably got a lot worse than a minor injury. there are folks that are reporting the collapse. you can only hope they have enough air and oxygen to breath. they are not too close to the fire, which is pretty significant. it looks like the fire and parts of the building are getting worse. probably because the water was

just not getting down to it. >> that's arn important factor. when you have a collapse and something is burning underneath it, the assumption, common sense, would tell you maybe it gets smothered. often, that is not the case. we learned in 9/11. >> you can't keep thinking the water is getting to it. the water has the tendency to go in the easiest direction. if there is something that makes it run away or a big part of plywood or something like that blocking you from getting at the fire, that just builds up in intensity down there and it is getting hotter and hotter. anybody close to it, smoke is coming in that direction. they are in real trouble. that's what the firefighters know that right now. you can bet from everything you see, you can bet that this guy is trying to get in from the back, the side. park avenue is very narrow there, because of the railroad. you know they are coming in the back, digging in through the

basement. there are probably guys underneath that right now taking enormous risk trying to find people where the water is coming ond a on. >> i got a quick message from one of the guys responding in the air. he said, you will see they are all up in the air. they have to stay a little bit of distance from it, because of the nature of the smoke and also the heat. obviously, heat rising and it much be incredibly hot for the guys in the pucket. park avenue, one of the broader lanes we have is choked off because of metro north. they couldn't get directly in front of the building. how long can they stay in those buckets? how often do they have to swap out? >> the guys in the bucket are all fine. those guys will stay there as

long as it is necessary. the more water they put on there, the more difficult it is for the people that need to get in there. there are rescue units, special operation units, trying to work their way in, taking a certain amount of risk, because they believe there might be people in there. you have to weigh the amount of risk based on the opportunity you might have to save people. if it is too late in some spots, you have to think about the risk you are putting your firefighters in. all of that debris is all in there. you don't know how many boys are underneath, what the water is doing pushing things out of the way. it is really dangerous right now. >> they are understanding there is no advance warning of this. there is an expectation that people are trapped.

there was evidence on the street level that guys were getting there. there may be people in distress. there is no further reporting about that. there is an unknown issue of how deep down the building did go as you are pointing out. what the basement structure of these buildings and the stability of that debris is. something you can explain for us. we are seeing a lot of ladders. we know there is heavy response. we know a fourth alarm was called. how much response and how serious does that make it? >> you probably get 20, 30 people with each alarm, depending on the amount of fire, five or six units. something like this. they bring special units too, all the collapsed units, all the rescue units, all the squads that are available. they need a lot more ladder companies. am some point, it will be just pulling the stuff out of the

way. i'm sure there is heavy equipment on the way there. emergency management will coordinate all of that. they have bulldozers and things like that that are on the way. they may already be there. waiting for a signal from the fire department that they will move in. nothing can happen until they stop those heavy streams. they are very dangerous. there are only a few people i would imagine that have any way of getting in there and searching. >> the water is creating smoke that makes visibility difficult. something else we are understanding about the situation, they are putting water. they have an advantage and a disadvantage here. there is only one more building to the south of them. however, to the north, a much bigger apartment structure. we do believe that the wall, the adjoining wall of the south building has also been breached. we are watching the hose be put on that wall.

>> that makes the situation worse. those heavy streams can knock a building down. those guys have to really be careful not to accelerate any damage that's already done to that building. like you mentioned, if there were two buildings in there, one was tearing it down or doing major, major demolition, and reconstruction, that always weakens the building next to t they are always worried about the ground washing away underneath. now, they have all that water. this is just a monumental problem and a hope, i'm sure, that by all the chiefs there is that there aren't any people in that building. as the time goes by, with all that water and all that smoke and toxic fumes, it is becoming more and more difficult to get to them. >> commissioner, we do believe on scene 168 firefighters, 39 units. it does sound like this is

certainly reaching about four alarms plus ancillary units. please stay with me. want to get to somebody on the scene. eric burst, a student at columbia university says he got to the scene soon after the explosion, 35, 40 minutes ago. eric, can you hear us? >> yes, i can hear you. >> what do you see? what do you hear? >> i got here about ten minutes after the explosion. i live at 123rd. i felt it all the way there in my living room. tons of people kept pouring out of the apartment buildings at 116th and madison avenue. there are a few groups of people here speaking with the police. i am not sure. they haven't confirmed whether they have a loved one or anyone inside. there is a group of 50 or so people standing on each side of the street trying to get some information about what's going on. i am actually looking here at the side.

more groups of people coming out. i'm not sure exactly where they are coming from or if they were in the building the whole time. >> do you believe that people came out of the building that collapsed or people from the adjacent buildings? >> i'm not sure, sir. they are kind of just walking down the street. they have closed off the blocks from a point. >> it is so heavily residential that people are probably being evacuated. that's probably the situation. you are seeing people being evacuated trying to deal with it right now. how thick is the smoke on the ground. >> i can see in front of me about 50 feet up until the explosion and then it gets pretty thick. a few firefighters just walked in with gurneys. there are about two sets of them walking in.

>> we are seeing it now. they can be for people alive and injured. . looking at our first live picture from ground level. we are seeing the door that's blocking us would be a con-edison support vehicle. this area is all piped for gas. an explosion of this magnitude and power that's felt blocks away. that type of con cuss sieve strength does lead to a propelled explosion. the theory being gas or oil or a burner or fuel lines under the roll. that's that truck. this is the scene at ground level. what is most obvious is the smoke. firefighters are dialing with that. it is coming from the explosion, the effort to swash that explosion. the water mixing with fire is going to create the smoke. that's how difficult it is at ground level. to your left, you are seeing the view from above. most of the firefighters addressing the fire are from

above, because it gives them a better angle to go down. the building has collapsed. it is not one building but two that had a shared wall that went down. we are looking at manhattan, 116th, 117th street on the east side, park avenue. one of the broader boulevards. it is choked at this part of the city by the metro north elevated railway. on that railway, there is a debris field from what we believe to be an explosion of these joined buildings. the firefighters are therefore shooting down into this hole trying to put out the fire. there have been injured removed from the building. there is an expectation of more. there is a lot of unknown. it was not clear there was any advanced warning of this. the firefighters in the elevated buckets are dealing with extreme heat and smoke. you see, that's why they are getting down to stay low and see what they can have the that's what we are dealing with right now.

the situation has been going on for about 40 minutes. if eric burst is still with us, eric, you still on the phone? >> yes, i'm here. >> is there anything changing, any other activity that's relevant? >> some fire vehicles are leaving the scene. a police vehicle just got here with crowd barricades. the crowds here are growing by the minute. these are people that live nearby and people that have told me that they have loved ones that live nearby and they are not sure which building blew up or if their loved ones are there or somewhere else. >> eric, thank you very much. make sure you stay clear of the area. listen to the firefighters. the situation far from over because of the adjoining buildings. there is so much residential capacity that they have to be very careful. the buildings that we understand, two buildings, one joined wall. multi-use, multi-purpose buildings. on the ground level, they were storefronts.

one of them was a christian spanish church. the one next to it was a piano repair shop. above them, four or five levels of apartments that went back as far as could have 2-4 units per floor. a lot of people lived in there. they have been fighting this fire for about 40 minutes. there is an adjoining wall of a building if you are looking screen left at your television, the smaller building, we believe the wall that was shared has been breached. they have been 13rspraying a lof water on that building. this could be doing it to make it insulated from flame and fire and heat or because it is on fire. which is going to require more evacuations. we have someone else on the scene, cnn producer, rose rcee. what do you see there. >> reporter: i am standing 70 feet inside this debris, swarming with firefighters

walking all over. you can almost see this was a construction zone and they were building a building. little tiny bricks and pieces of wood that have collapsed into a pile toward the direction of the train station. there is significant amounts of debris that have hit the steel posts that hold up the railroads. you see smoke pointing to the center of this. there is a portion of the building that is like steel sheets of metal holding it together on one side. that's where you can see a plum of smoke where they are try tog with hoses wet the area so that the fire doesn't spread and also to allow the firefighters to pick up and remove the debris,

picking up that. >> you can look at the roof of the building clearest in view. look at how much debris is on top of it. that is evidence of what exploded from those buildings next to it. when this explosion happened, that's part of the debris that was shot off on top of it. we understand there are 168 firefighters on the scene. a call for a fourth alarm. 39 units plus, as former fdny commissioner was telling us, a lot of support services as well. what does that mean? you have special equipment for dealing with situations like this. you have gas at play, natural gas that's fed to a lot of these buildings. we see trucks from that support as well. you have construction going on adjacent to it. that's going to create risks and different requirements for people on the scene. this is all developing again. we are giving you live pictures from the ground here in

manhattan as well as from above. we have been monitoring the situation since it happened for about 4.0 minutes. we'll too do so. yes, there are injured. the information is very premature. surrounding hospitals say they are treating one person. maybe more are expected. these were multipurpose buildings, storefronts on the bottom. one was a church and one was a piano repair shop. there could have been multiple apartments on each floor. right now, we want to listen to john deljorno, he is the air reporter from wabc. let's listen in to what he sees from above. john is not talking right now. he will be. he is a local reporter here at wabc. he is trying to get the scene from above. we will keep listening in to try

and get you that report. you see there are men standing side of where this happened.he - there are two reasons for that. one is to make sure that the situation is contained on that ild abouting. fire spreads very quickly with these types of materials, specially with ongoing construction. it is also what they call, eyes in the sky. the ability for firefighters to direct the traffic of fire fighting efforts because they are up-wind of this. they are not being covered by the smoke. they have a clearfield of view of what's going on. they, communicate with the other firefighters who are actually being smothered by the smoke and heat. they can't see what they are shooting at. you have to remember, those streams of water are incredibly powerful. you have to be careful not to deal with any glass and other fragile structure. that's what's going on. let's get back to our producer,

cnn's rose arcy. anything else? >> reporter: just about five minutes ago, about ten of them are furiously trying to remove the police from a particular central area of where the collapse happened. they have allowed more emergency workers in the section where they are. so i presume they are trying to work on the gas piles here. also, they have started to pour water from the towers that have come in. they are focusing on the central question of this fire that seems to be continuing. the firefighters are smoldering. it seems to remain active right in the center of this collapse. that's consistent with what we are understanding so far.

we will get back to you. we have another reporter live on the scene, poppy harlow, who is trying to get an understanding of how it is developing there. what's the latest? >> reporter: hi, chris. as you can see, we are standing on the corner of madison and 116th street. i'm going to put the phone down for a minute while i talk to you. we are about a half a block away from where this explosion happened. what we know right now. when i was on the area earlier, we had not seen any stretchers coming out with anyone injured. we have since seen two people coming out on stretchers, one of them with oxygen mask on being taken into ambulances. there are well over a dozen. what we know from fndy, 138 members. oem, the office of emergency management. our susan candiotti, saying, on a precautionary basis, they have sent the nypd bomb squad here. this fire explosion taking place at 116th street. the smoke is so heavy, the

moment we got here, we were coughing. it is still pretty difficult to breath comfortably. i want to bring in angelica. she lives in this building, which is right on the same block as to where the explosion happened here in east harlem, also known as spanish harlem. what happened? i know you were stuck for a moment. >> i heard a big explosion. i didn't know what was going on. it was a building complex. you could see the other side of the building. it started going into smoke. my neighbors came banging on my door telling me to get out. i couldn't get out. my door was jammed. everything off my windowsill fell. the impact of the explosion jammed the door as well. >> how loud was it. it woke me out of my sleep. that's how loud it was. >> i saw a man, it looks like your father, came up and embraced you. >> yes, he did. he was so worried, the way i called him.

i was almost having an anxiety attack. i was crying i didn't know what to do. my boss called the fire people, everybody. they would have to sneak into the back to open the door for me. >> reporter: the woman named olga who was sobbing in tears. she ran up here, ran blocks and blocks, because her daughter lives on this block. i believe to say that everyone in this building was all right. she is still searching for her daughter. that gives you the frantic scene. she tried talking to nypd, fdyy, she couldn't get any answers. do you have anyone that lives in the building that has exploded? >> i don't know anybody in the other building but i was concerned because we are tooth as a whole. >> a block. all these are connected. how long have you lived here? >> for over five years. i was told by a local journalist who you were talking to earlier, remember him, who was filming up here as well, that there was a pretty substantial fire here at

116th and park a few years ago. durh do you remember that? >> not in complete because i wasn't around. my father and stepfather were around. >> reporter: you don't know what might have caused that? >> no. >> reporter: thank you. i'm glad you are okay. we appreciate it very much. chris, i'm going to throw it back to you. the metro northline in and out of new york city, the train line that runs from here into grand central is suspended in both directions. debris from this explosion landed on the tracks of the metro north. on the scene in manhattan where we believe two buildings have collapsed after an explosion. law enforcement officials tell cnn, they are not seeing any connection to terror. this is about the potential of

an explosion that could have been because of gas. gas is the fuel that feeds a lot of buildings in this area. it has been going on for about 45 minutes. it is a five-alarm fire. that means the same thing in new york as it does wherever you live. it is a massive, massive effort. there have been injured. it is a very fluid situation. the buildings have collapsed. let's bring in congressman, charlie rangel. what's the best information? >> it's just as frightening to me and the rest of the delegations that we don't have the facts. we know it is a horrific explosion. with me, it is only about ten blocks from where i live and was born and was raised. i know the area. it is right at the site of la mateta, which so many people may

remember, one of the largest indoor markets we have had historically, that was created by mayor laguardia. it is tote little unbelievable that something of this magnitude to happen in this community. >> what we are watching right now, i want to put up the google street view of this area because we will see what the buildings were? we are looking a little bit south. you see the park deli and then there is this apartment building and then there are two. you see the two buildings next to that one that share a wall. those are the buildings that are believed to have been collapsed. you understand they probably have all but completely collapsed. clear, the scene is all smoke where we now see building. this is very familiar territory to you. these buildings are called pre-war, having been built before world war ii.

they are old structures, natural gas fed. they are called multi-use. on the ground floor as we monitor live picture, let's go back to the google maps so people can understand what happened here. two buildings, on the bottom, one was the spanish christian dhu church. i live a few blocks from these two buildings. i know that church. hopefully, it was uninhabited at this time of the morning. next was a piano repair shop. hopefully, they were vacant. on top of those were four or five levels. that's going to be the great concern. we understand it is a five-alarm fire right now. they are responding with ancillary units as well. the bomb squad is there because of gas and their analysis of what kind of explosions could come after this. as far as you know, congressman, is the situation getting all of the resources it needs. are all of the different

agencies able to coordinate and get help there. >> into question about it. the staff is there on the grown. they are working and getting information as to how we can be helpful from the fire and the police department, the red cross is there. i may be there right after the vote here in washington. i was not able to see the television. i know the area as you do. it is compact with people. the only news that doesn't sound terrible is that the timing meant that there weren't many people in the building i just hope, i'm so concerned about the people that may have been caught in this tragic event. so there is not much but you can imagine how i feel, as though i went to work and found out that my house was on fire, not

knowing who was caught in it, what caused it, or what's going to happen next. i don't feel very comfortable now in talking about interest tragedy. i am making every effort as soon as we finish to get home and see what, if anything, i can do. >> congressman, i appreciate you being on with us. you are right. this is a densely populated area. there are a lot of families here. we are hoping for the best. we know we have our best on it. the fdny. nobody fights fire with more enthusiasm than these guys do. certainly, we are calling out all the units here. i think we do have to reserve judgment until the facts allow us to understand what happened. not just cause but the consequence. we will reserve judgment until

we get more information. we know if you are joining us that there has been a major explosion of two buildings in manhattan. an area on park avenue. the buildings were joined by one wall. they had stores on the bottom and multiple players on the top. it does sound like it was fueled by natural gas, which is what the primary fuel source is in this area. officials tell c inn they do no believe there is any connection to terrorism. the urgency is on stopping the fire. there are buildings on either side that have certainly been damaged. one of them seems to have been breached by fire and is receiving a lot of water attention. you are looking in the right part of your screen at the elevated railway. that's metro north. you will see there is debris on it, even though it is some 50

feet in the air. these were six seven-story buildings, again, evidence of an explosion. cars in the area have had windows blown out, covered by debris as well. a very significant evacuation going on. when it comes to the issue of the explosion and why we say it may be natural gas. con edison is the company that runs municipal gas in manhattan. it was called to a possible gas leak right before the explosion. again, that doesn't tell us everything we need to know. it is highly suggestive of what could cause an explosion like this. powerful enough to be felt blocks away and to actually bring down buildings, old, pre-1940s. there were at least 138 firefighters on the scene, a five-alarm fire. that's a term that's familiar to people all around the country in terms of being the highest level of urgency you can have. something interesting to note. you will see on your screen, there are firefighters on top of

the building next to it. there are two reasons for that, to make sure it doesn't spread to that building. fire moves up. heat rises, as we all know. the other reason is, because of the wind coming out of the north. it means it is blowing to the south. it blinds the firefighters. it is hard for them to see what they are fighting. it allows them to have eyes in the sky of communication where the men on that building can tell them where to direct their hoses. it is going to be very difficult the way this situation is set up for people to fight from ground level because there was an explosion. it is unstable. there is all this water and smoke to deal with. both very dangerous to firefighters on the ground. let's listen in to new york 1, what they are seeing on the ground. >> boom! it's like heavy thunder, heavy

thunder. >> reporter: did you run outside? >> yes, i jump up and put my clothes on and came up the block here, park avenue south. >> reporter: what did you see? >> new york city's finest, bravest at its best, the fire department of new york city. a whole lot of people here. >> they were in motion. people running to the explosion? >> people out here photographing the situation. the exact location is 116 and 117 park avenue south. there is a piano store. there was a piano store there. it is up above the piano store. the explosion came from. >> we know return a live picture of manhattan. there has been a massive explosion that we believe took

down two buildings. there is tons of rescue and fire support on screen, no the because there is any connection to an explosive device. it is believed it may have been a gas explosion. the bomb squad experience with handling that situation as well. cnn will take a break and come back to continuing coverage of this massive explosion of two buildings in manhattan. stay with us. co: i've always found you don't know you need a hotel room until you're sure you do. bartender: thanks, captain obvious. co: which is what makes using the hotels.com mobile app so useful. i can book a nearby hotel room from wherever i am. or, i could not book a hotel room and put my cellphone back into my pocket as if nothing happened. hotels.com. i don't need it right now.

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