influential woman by his side. his younger sister kim yo-jong, who is now considered to be the second most powerful person in north korea. and analysts say kim's young daughter has ample time for an apprenticeship. >> she now has a decade to establish herself increasingly as learn from her father of how to play china off russia off the united states, off south korea, off japan. >> ju ae is also learned how to gain the trust of her father the country's nuclear arsenal and who to trust and not trust in the halls of power in pyongyang. to our viewers, thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." "erin burnett outfront" starts right now.

"outfront" next, russian soldiers speaking out against putin's invasion as we hear from one former russian prisoner forced to fight, then left to suffer. it's an "outfront" exclusive on putin recruiting convicts for the front lines. silence from biden tonight, even as the u.s. shoots down three more objects from the sky in three days. why hasn't president biden spoken publicly? new details from the white house tonight. and a passenger jet plunges shortly after takeoff, coming within less than 800 feet of the ocean. what happened? let's go "outfront." good evening. i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, russian soldiers revolt, speaking out in new videos tonight. here are two different soldiers from different battalions speaking out. you'll see not just them, they are surrounded by their peers. >> translator: we are not prepared for assaults. our battalion already has

losses. our command is far away from us. communication is practically nonexistent. the command never comes to us. >> translator: the local leadership does not care about us. they consider us expendable material. their motto is, we'll fight till the last soldier. and then they'll send us more. >> and who are those new ones? you hear each voice, but surrounded by groups who are showing their solidarity with the feelings. well, these new ones that are coming to the front lines are still often coming straight from putin's prisons. i spoke to the russian journalist today. now you may remember that she interrupted that live news broadcast last year. shaez the one that walked there behind with the "no war" sign. she was threatened with years in prison and told she'll be broken. and you're going to hear the unbelievable story of how she escaped russia. when i asked her about the prisoners fighting in ukraine, she said this.

>> translator: you have to understand that no one wants to fight for putin, people don't support this empire in the kremlin. that is why he has nothing else left but to work with prisoners for this criminal war. >> they don't want to fight for putin in his palaces, referring to him and his cronies in the kremlin as vampires. maybe it's because this is what they get in exchange. just listen to what one prisoner told our nick paten walsh in an exclusive report. >> translator: we walk around with bullet wounds, with shrapnel stuck in our legs. no one is being operated on. >> no one is being operated on. well, that same convict then told nick that more than 90 of the 130 men in his group had been killed. and that's the reality tonight. putin is burning through soldiers at an unsustainable rate. here's another data point. today we read a norwegian

intelligence report that said 3,000 men were called up to fight from russia's kola province and they all say the same thing. that intelligence report also warning that russia could resort to nukes against nato. inside putin's military, the infighting is getting more brazen and more public. today a telegram post slammed one of putin's top generals. part of it reads, this piss-pants, ex-expletive, sending column after column of troops while the commander of one of the brigades involved in the storming was killed at the line of contact. column after column of men sent to die while their commanders hide. our producer on the ground tonight called it a, quote, mauling of russian forces. and we have shown you some of

these videos as we've obtained them, that spotlight to bring all this home, that man running on fire across the snow-ridden field. russian soldiers being run over by their own like rag dolls that's their own tank. we have a new video tonight to share with you, these are russian tanks exploding as they are driving through a mine field. soldiers then, some on fire, flee in every direction. we have a lot to get to tonight. i want to begin with nick paton walsh and his exclusive reporting speaking to russian convicts. >> reporter: any joy here is fleeting, this dance could be their last. russian soldiers, most convicts here, living it up hours before being sent to the front lines. they fight to be pardoned, but here over half died at the fronts, survivors said, even some after they had lived through the battles. ♪ victor was jailed for armed robbery and assault, but taken out of prison and thrown into

the worst fighting outside of soledar. his unit joking here before they assault a factory the next day, suffered catastrophic casualties, he told his wife. victor survived, but as he lay injured in hospital, he fears being dragged from his bed and executed for poor performance. this is his last message to his wife. [ speaking non-english ] >> reporter: days later his wife got a closed coffin back after a call from a soldier who said

victor had died from that rappel injuries. he's buried here outside moscow. there's something very different, though, to many of the prisoners sent to the front line to make up for russia's devastating casualties. most are sent by shadowy private military contractor wagner, who in this propaganda video, are keen to portray rare survivors coming back joyful, grateful even. last week claimed to have stopped recruiting in prisons all together. but he and several convicts cnn has spoken to said they were hired from jail directly by the russian ministry of defense. it's a remarkable use of convicts directly by moscow and ukrainian intelligence says it's captured them on the front line. even among russian prisoners of war in ukraine, there are now those recruited into the private companies of the defense ministry of the russian federation. they emphasized to us that they

are not wagner, but officially invited by the defense ministry. here we hear echoes of internal squabbles in the russian military leadership. wagner's presence is being diluted with convicts directly controlled by the defense chiefs shoigu and gerasimov. >> reporter: rekreemt has surged. these government figures showing a sudden 27,000 person drop in the prisoner population. a large proportion have died with this wagner training video showing one of the reckless tactics prisoners are used for, charging forwards together at the enemy. he was part of a unit called 08807, and its other front line survivors know how hard it is to stay alive under the ministry of defense. we spoke to several from their

hospital beds hiding their identity. a former soldier jailed on drugs charges described being sent back twice to the front while injured. >> translator: we walk around with bullet wounds, with shrapnel stuck in our legs. no one is being operated on. we were 130 people but have many amputees. there's probably less than 40 of us left. >> reporter: another convicted on manslaughter says half his unit became casualties. we were sent to the very front. i radioed our guys that they were firing mortars at us, that they should aim a bit to the right. and they still shot at us from both sides. then i understood they were deliberately firing at us. >> reporter: cnn reached out to the russian ministry of defense for comment and we haven't received a reply. but the fact that they could be getting in on the act of recruiting prisoners, something initially only done by the private mercenary company wagner shows the possibility of some competition, tension, between these two parts of russia's

military apparatus. and it also shows too that moscow won't really stop at anything in its bid to try and regain momentum in its faltering invasion. erin? >> nick, thank you very much for that incredible exclusive report. ian bremmer is with me, foreign policy expert writing extensively on the war in ukraine. president and founder of the eurasia group. you see these videos of prisoners being trained to rush the enemy en masse. and they get mowed down, they send them anyway. those exclusive conversations that nick had with convicts. one said 70% of the men in his group are dead or amputees, they're sent back out. is this mass death doing any damage to putin? >> i wouldn't say it is. i think the level of control to putin has over the information, environment in russia is overwhelming. i think the anger of the russian people towards the united

states, towards nato, they believe they're not just fighting the ukrainians but they're fighting the west as a whole. so, no, he still has very significant support. keep in mind, as horrible as the treatment that these russian soldiers, former convicts, are receiving, the russian economy has been standing relatively well. about a 3.5% contraction over the last 12 months compared to about 40% for the ukrainians. if anyone is suffering here, let's be clear, it's the 44 million ukrainians vastly more than the russian homeland. >> i think it is so crucial you say that because when people say aren't it there the sanctions? yeah, but there's a whole lot more that could be done that hasn't been done. >> it takes time. >> so, within this context, nick's talking about this recruiting now, not just the wagner group and prigozhin from the prisons, but also the actual formal russian military itself. and there is this fight between these two groups. in that context, that telegram quote that i read, this

pissy-pants, expletive -- i'm sorry -- he is just lucky he is not near fighters. prigozhin again going after the russian military, insulting them. but this is so public and vulgar. what do you read into that? >> the head of this wagner group is responsible for one of the only significant victories that the ukrainians have had really since the beginning of this war, and as a consequence he feels emboldened. he has certainly taken on publicly inside russia some of the regular forces and their leaders, the commanders. it's one of the reasons why gerasimov was moved in his position, have direct control on the ground in ukraine. putin wants to show that he's still very much in charge through the official lines. none of this, if you're asking me, does this mean that prigozhin is suddenly going to be a competitor to the throne in

russia, not if he knows what's good for him. he did a very unusual interview a few days ago where he said i don't have any political ambitions myself. he better be saying that because the alternative is a very quick ouster. >> as others have found out. so, in the context of this, elon musk. now you've spoken in depth with him about ukraine. he again has blocked starlink from the ukrainian military, is the latest that we know. now it's impossible to overstate the importance of starlink. zelenskyy was saying we wouldn't be here without it. it has been that instrumental. musk defended blocking it in response to criticism from astronaut scott kelly. musk said it is the communication backbone in ukraine where almost all other internet connectivity has been destroyed. then he says, but we will not enable escalation of conflict that can lead to world war three. >> the criticism here that we are seeing is about not being able to use starlink for drone

surveillance directly that would then be allowed to blow up targeting. and the contract that has been signed where starlink is being provided for free to the ukrainians is for humanitarian purposes. so he's absolutely within the context of what they're doing. when i was at davos, i met with a large number of ukrainian officials, some of whom are directly involved in this program. and about three weeks ago they did say that right now they're getting 100% of what they need from spacex and starlink, which is i was quite gratified to hear. >> and you think so even with this? >> this only came up a few days ago. it does seem -- again, i want to be clear, if it wasn't for starlink and microsoft with the cloud and the cybersecurity in the early days of the war, it's not clear to me that zelenskyy is still even there, so don't underestimate the importance of these united states technology companies and what they've done.

the danger, of course, is those decisions are in the hands of a very small number of individuals who can change their mind at any moment. and i think that's a very important point for us to remember. >> and who are individuals and money as a motive, other things too perhaps, but they're not state actors, is the point. >> they're not responsible to thes ises is. president biden still silent even as members of his own party say he needs to address the unidentified objects that are being taken down over the u.s. this as the chinese government accuses the u.s. of sending more than ten spy balloons to china. plus, ron desantis taking his fight over a black history course to a new level. is he going too far or not? and for the first time we're going to take you inside syria to fee firsthand the inconceivable destruction left in the wake of the devastating earthquake that has now taken the lives of what we know to be 36,000 people. and effortlessssly responds to both of you. our smart sleeeepers get 28 minutes more restful sleep per night.

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angles with phil mattingly at the white house and selina wang who's on the ground in beijing where the government is now accusing the u.s. of sending spy balloons to china. something the u.s. denies. but i want to begin with you, phil, at the white house. can you take us behind the scenes at the white house? so it goes from they know about a balloon and nobody says anything, and then somebody sees it, it gets shot down, and now here we are three more shot down, and the whole thing has, you know, multiplied. why the silence, and will we hear from the president? >> it's important to note that there is no precedent here in terms of u.s. fighters taking out objects over u.s. skies. the first time it's ever happened. and it happened three times over the course of three days. and we still haven't heard from president biden. despite calls, not just from republicans on capitol hill but also democratic allies saying more information is needed. the president should speak. but in talking to senior administration officials, they made clear, in part, there are so many unanswered questions that remain, not just in the public sphere but also behind the scenes, among officials

themselves as they wait for the recovery efforts to finalize. but also the effort to calibrate a response right now from the president, in the sense that the president doesn't want people to panic. and they believe that if the president comes out right now it would make this appear to be a crisis at a level that they don't think it is at the moment. now, that still underscores the fact that they don't know a lot about what these three objects that were shot down actually are. they've talked about the officials that they've had out publicly, john kirby, lloyd austin in trying to give regular briefings about what they do know. now, behind the scenes, i'm told the president is being briefed at a very regular clip about updates, obviously speaking to lawmakers, the hill being briefed as well. tomorrow a classified briefing for all 100 senators. ramping up pressure to hear not just from top administration

officials but the president himself. >> as the white house tonight denies a remarkable accusation made by china's foreign ministry that the u.s. has illegally flown u.s. aircraft over beijing. so the chinese government is now making accusations about the united states. i guess the context here is the u.s. did not know china was sending balloons like this over the u.s. so in that context, i guess it's questionable that they themselves have been sending balloons over china. but nonetheless, that appears to be the accusation? >> reporter: right, erin. what we're seeing beijing do is come out with these much bolder and more aggressive accusations and claims. they're essentially presenting a completely different narrative with an alternative set of facts that the u.s. flat-out rejects. so really the strategy here is to counter what the u.s. is saying with their own accusations, repeatingly calling america the world's largest surveillance empire and saying it's common for u.s. balloons to

illegally enter other countries' air space, including china's, which is a claim that the u.s. says is false, and just an attempt by beijing to do damage control, and the regular ministry of foreign affairs press briefing. the spokes person claimed that last year the u.s. sent warships and planes 657 times. meanwhile, state media also reported on sunday that they've spotted their own ufo above waters near an eastern port city and were preparing to shoot it down. now they gave no further details about the object, and it's still unclear if it's been taken down. but this incident has gone viral on china's tightly controlled social media. on monday morning, this was the top trending topic with two related hashtags, racking up more than 900 million views. the top comment on that story is essentially mocking the u.s. for overreacting. it says, quote, thanks to the demonstration made by the u.s., we must report it in a high-profile manner when we shoot down the object. now, i spoke to a

singapore-based defense expert drew thompson who said china's messaging lacks credibility, and it is contradictory, but it's largely really directed to the domestic audience. >> selena, thank you very much. i want to go out front to a member of the intelligence committee and the newly established house select committee on china. congressman, i very much appreciate your time. three more unidentified airborne objects shot down over the weekend. all we seem to know is their shapes. i don't want to say it's funny, but a shape like an octagon appears to be all we know. are they from china? >> well, look, i've been sounding the alarm on this issue since i chaired the first open hearing on identifying aerial phenomenon for 50 years a year ago. and after our open hearing we experienced an increased interest in more pilots, more

people to say something when they saw something. there was an unclassified report that was released last month as a result of our hearing. and the main takeaway was that we have to continue studying and investigating these things. >> so, in the last several years, as you point out, congress has paid a lot more attention on unidentified flying objects or unidentified aerial phenomenon. and you chaired a hearing on the topic. marco rubio, chairman of the senate intelligence committee at one point, and i quote him, said, there's a stigma on capitol hill, some of my colleagues are interested in this topic, and some kind of giggle when you bring it up. but i don't think we can allow this stigma to keep us from having answers to a fundamental question. i quote him there because, congressman, very smart, informed people have been open to the possibility that these objects were truly actually ufos from outerspace. they were open to the media. china has been sending spy balloons over the united states and from the reporting right now at massive scale. do you feel that the

intelligence community failed here? >> i don't. look, in some cases, objects spotted in the sky were no more than debris. in other cases, as we've seen, they could have connections to the chinese government, and even state actors. there's a lot we still don't know. we don't know if these objects were completely benign or if they had something to do with a foreign government. at the very least, these objects were a safety concern for pilots. but i'm confident that president biden did the right thing, that the dod, and my colleagues will continue to look for answers. >> two and a half years ago a senate intelligence report on ufos said this issue lacked attention from senior leaders. here we are two and a half years later, and, to the american public, the only reason that we're even hearing about this and the only reason these things are now being shot out of the skies is because somebody saw a chinese spy balloon that went too low.

does the blame here go all the way to the president? why are we only hearing about this now? it feels like they're on their heels. >> well, look, i don't want to speak out of school, but what i will say is that i do have confidence in our intelligence community with regards to this issue, and i have confidence in the biden administration's response regarding this issue. i think that there has to be greater communication between members of the appropriate committees and the white house. i think that's a work in progress. we're getting there. but, at the same time, i think we have to be very cautious and aware that our adversaries are listening into our conversations, they're hearing what we're saying on public platforms. so i think our language has to be measured in a way that does not alert them in terms of our strategy. >> thank you very much. and, next, the republican senator tim scott of south carolina reportedly ready to run

for president. and nikki haley is expected to make her announcement this week. can either beat trump? plus, we take you inside a crowded syrian hospital where doctors are scrambling to try to save lives, including the life of this 3-month-old who was pub pulled from the rubble alive. n . ensure with twenty-fivee vitamins and minerals, and ensure complete with thirty grams of protein. sometimes you're so busy taking care of everyone else you don't do enough for yourself, or your mouth. but eventually, it will remind you. when it does, aspen dental here for you. we offer the custom dental treatments you need, all under one roof, right neby. so we can bring more life to your smile... and more smile to your life... affordably. new patients without insurance can get a free complete exam and x-rays, and 20 percent off treatment plans. schedule your appointment today. (avo) in three seconds, this couple will share a perfect moment.

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tonight, governor ron desantis threatening to cut ties with the college board that administers advanced placement classes. this whole fight is rooted in desantis' objection of an ap african american studies course that he claims pushed a political agenda.

>> the college board was the one that in a black studies course put queer theory in new york the us, they did that. they were the ones that put in intersectionality. they put in other types of neo-marxism into the proposed s syllabus. in florida we do education, not indoctrination. nobody elected this college board to anything, they're just kind of there, and they're providing service. and so you can either utilize those services or not. >> and there's the threat. so these comments from desantis came after the college board criticized desantis publicly. now, it is important to note that this a.p. course syllabus that desantis is speaking about had already been revised once in addressing some of the issues desantis raised. the college board say it's didn't do so based on pressure from the governor. karen, you heard governor desantis earlier today. he returns to this issue again and again and again.

is he smart to revel in this particular fight? >> i think he believes that this is a winning issue for him, and this is, from a political context, more evidence, of course, of ron desantis really moving to the far right and really trying to claim that mantle and claim that lane in what is likely to be a crowded 2024 republican primary. and so i'm sure we're going to hear him come back to this over and over again. he thinks it's a winning issue without thinking about the impact that it has on students in his state. >> so, eric, desantis said today that he is confident that he's far from feeling alone this way, but that he is the only one actually willing to take up the fight. here's how he put it. >> we were just the only ones that had the backbone to stand up and do it because they call you names and they demagogue you when you do it. but, look, i'm so sick of people not doing what's right because they're worried that people are going to call them names. we're doing what's right here. [ applause ]

>> so, eric, he's made his bet, and he's climbed in it, and happily so. he certainly thinks this is going to work for 2024. >> i think convictionly he believes these things, but also definitely it's good politics for 2024 for desantis, particularly as the republican party aligns more with blue collar voters who are generally skeptical of things like the college board to begin with. it makes him look very populist whether he is or isn't. >> let's speak of the gop race for 2024. obviously desantis he's been -- he's waiting. who knows what he's waiting for. but he's waiting even as he speaks. and the "wall street journal" is reporting that others are not, that republican senator tim scott of south carolina, they say, is laying the ground work that he wants to run for president, he's holding an event this thursday in south carolina to mark black history month, just one day after the state's former governor nikki haley is

expected to launch her 2024 bid. eric, do you see a lane for senator scott in 2024? >> you know, i do. there is a craving among republicans for someone who's kind of the happy warrior, like he is. he has one of the most unique stories and backgrounds of a republican. i think he carves his own lane, and it's not necessarily a lane that other candidates could have. someone like scott with his background, his story, the first black man as a republican, he represented the area of south carolina where the first shots of the civil war were fired. he's got a story to tell. can he get enough of a lane and enough of a constituency to rival desantis and trump? that's going to be hard. >> well, and karen, also, i will just say he's holding an event thursday in south carolina to mark black history month. >> right. >> he has an african american senator. he's from south carolina. he talks about this. he has worked on police reform. you got him. then you've got desantis going against the a.p. on a black

studies class. can scott walk and chew gum at the same time on this in the gop? >> well, he absolutely can. i think the question is -- and i think it's going to further open up the fractures that exist in the gop because, remember, part of what ron desantis and the books that have been pulled from school libraries in florida object to is any conversation about racism. i was reading about a book about roberto clemente that was pulled because it mentions that he dealt with racism. tim scott himself has talked about his own experiences as a black man. so imagine the two of them on the stage, and one who is, you know, essentially using the full force of the state government to decide what people can learn about and read, and another man who's trying to talk about his own lived experience. >> so here's what some of senator scott said about trump, or the only current declared

candidate in the republican field. >> do you want the former president to run again? >> i want the same policy positions that we had before that i believe -- >> can somebody else do that and not somebody who makes things, in your words, difficult? >> well, i hope that we will find our way back to a place where we're talking about principles and not personalities. >> very hopeful, eric. but the reality is the reality. if trump is running, does scott have to take this more on the red? >> look, i actually think trump views a crowded field as a good thing so he'll ignore scott, he'll ignore nikki haley, for the most part, maybe a few passive slights. trump is worried about desantis. and he thinks the more people get into the field, the better it is for him. so he kind of welcomes scott, welcomes haley. and he'll welcome others into the race as well. >> thank you both very much. next, for the first time, we're going to take you inside syria where the already completely fragile medical system is collapsing because doctors don't have the equipment

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tonight, a miraculous rescue

one week after that devastating earthquake in turkey. this man was pulled out alive after 167 hours stuck under the rubble. you can see him hugging the rescuers who helped to free him. it's amazing he even had the ability to do that after so much time. the death toll now surpassing 36,000 killed, and of course it will go higher. humanitarian aid is just starting to make its way into syria. cnn is one of only a few networks to witness the devastation on a country so ravaged on medical supplies and civil war. >> reporter: baby mohamed takes every little labored breath on his own. no mom, no dad to hold his tiny hand. his parents didn't survive the earthquake. the 3-month-old was rescued by neighbor who's brought him to this icu. in the room next door, we find the 26-year-old who will never walk again. the earthquake brought down her family's home and crushed her

back. her step mom tells us she and her three children were under the rubble for 18 hours. the children survived but they don't know where they are. in every room of this syrian hospital, a sweet tale of survival. many more should've been alive today to tell their stories. doctors say they tried to save them but didn't have enough supplies to save everyone. the few medical facilities in rebel-held syria are barely still standing after years of russian and syrian regime bombardment. >> we lost a lot of patients because of shortage in medical supplies. if we had them, we could have saved many more lives. >> reporter: this was the scene here last monday. >> this is the biggest disaster we ever had. we dealt with war injuries, but never had to deal with this many casualties at once. >> reporter: the people of this devastated land cried for help, but no help came.

aid to rebel-held northwest syria is tied in politics and at the mercy of a regime so cruel even at a time like this. once again, they're forgotten, they say, on their own picking up the pieces of their already broken lives. they dig and dig with their bare hands and whatever they can find desperately trying to reach their loved ones. it's too late for rescues now. they just want to bury their dead. mohamed is searching for relatives, expressionless and numb, he tells us 21 of them including children. in this one little town, officials are telling us more than 13 buildings were destroyed. those were homes. there were more than a thousand people in there. only 400 survived. life here feels like one endless cycle of loss and grief. most have been displaced time and time again by more than a decade of war. they are now homeless once again. we were sleeping under the trees, but it was so cold, we

came here, she tells us. she begs the international community to send them shelters. we just want to tent, she says. i wish we had died with everyone else so we don't go through this, she tells us. we survived only to live this misery and agony. they have nowhere left to run. millions are trapped in idlib. >> it's the last rebel-held territory in syria. >> reporter: mohamed says that she and her family fled aleppo province and came here. they escaped the fighter jets and the airstrikes. and she says we came here, and the earthquake followed us. she says death follows syrians everywhere. 700 people lived in this now flattened residential complex. only a handful survived. young men from nearby villages came running to help get people out, she tells us. but what can they do? they tried digging. we heard people screaming, get us out, get us out. then they went quiet. they all died.

two days later they pulled a little boy and girl. their dead bodies were still warm. others made it, after hours of this painstaking rescue. little ahmed was pulled out alive. the white helmets of heroes of syria's war did as much to save as they can. they urgently appeal for international support. >> they didn't send anything. they didn't respond. they let the people here down, and now the people here in syria know that now they are forgotten. >> reporter: at the turkish/syrian border on saturday, there were no aid trucks lining up. it was a constant stream of the dead. more than a thousand syrian refugees killed in the earthquake in turkey returning home in body bags. they say death follows syrians

everywhere. >> jomana, just incredible reporting. i know that you were able to cross the border. you're one of the few who have been able to do it. so you know how hard it is. what more are you able to tell us about the struggle to get any humanitarian aid into that corner of the country, which is already so isolated because of the war? >> reporter: well, erin, it looks now like the international community is finally mobilizing. the assad regime, according to the u.n., in the past few hours has agreed to open two more border crossings to allow for aid to come across. but we'll have to wait and see. the regime has a history, and everyone knows the history of this regime, and whether this will happen or not, we'll have to see. and then you also have u.n. aid trucks that have started crossing over in the past few days more than 50 trucks. but people in northern syria say that's just too little too late. the u.n.'s relief chief also

admitting that they have failed the people of northwest syria, saying they have all the right to feel abandoned. erin? >> jomana, thank you very much. powerful reporting there from syria and turkey. and, next, a passenger jet falling from the sky, able to recover. several hundred feet above the pacific ocean. what happened and what did the pilot tell the passengers? this was a flight to san francisco. and the man responsible, fired by president biden. how come? to find options within your budget. good l luck young man. realtor.com to each their hohome. let's dive in. but, what about your back? it's fine. before advil. advil, dual acti bites, pain, two ways. advil target pain at the source. acetaminophen blocks, pain signals, advil, dual action.

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blessings. you start asking yourself, is this the last time you're going to see your family. >> the flight takes off from maui december 18th, climbs 2,200 feet, then suddenly plunges 1,400 feet toward the ocean, falling for 21 seconds, reaching just 775 feet november above sealevel before leveling d ascending once again. the plane, which can carry more than 300 passengers, was mostly full. what did pilots tell the passengers? >> they got on the intercom and simply said, well, ladies and gentlemen, you probably felt a couple gs on that one. everything is going to be fine. it's going to be okay. >> the crew itself reported the incident after landing safely in san francisco according to the f.a.a. after its investigation, the pilots, who have a combined 25,000 hours of flight time, received additional training, but neither the f.a.a. nor united will say why the pilots ended up in a dive, telling cnn those safety investigations are

confidential. >> they're being corrected to prevent this behavior from happening again, which indicates to me that something occurred that could have been prevented by the crew. >> les hobbands is a retired 777 pilot. what might have happened here? >> there are numerous things that would cause a distraction. they may have unintentionally lost control of the airplane to the extent that the altitude decayed. >> it's unclear if weather played a role with a severe storm pounding parts of hawaii that day. >> it was torrential. >> hours earlier, 36 people were injured during extreme turbulence on board a hawaiian air night approaching honolulu after a cloud shot up in front of the airplane the n a matter of seconds and there wasn't enough time to avoid it according to the n.t.s.b. it's been a rough few months for the aviation world, from cancellations to system

meltdowns. two near collisions in new york and austin and now this mysterious incident with little explanation. and erin, this wednesday the f.a.a.'s acting administrator is set to testify in front of the senate commerce committee about all of these recent problems, and a spokesperson for that committee tells cnn this incident from december is likely to come up during that questioning. erin? >> gabe, thank you very money. for fight to watch. 21 seconds is a long time. next, the man tasked with keeping the united states capitol up and running has just been fired. wait until you hear what he's being accused of tonight. prett he wasy fired by the president. with rakuten... k i was like as if... then i was like... why didn't i do o this sooner? you can get cash back on all the fashion... ...at your fav beauauty stores... what the... ...and on pretty much, whatever. who put that there? in conclusion, you'd have to be butt crazy to shop without rakuten.

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the architect of the capitol fired, and tonight he's got. president biden firing brett blanton, the architect of the capitol today. the architect's responsibilities in this day and age include overseeing the capitol management and operations. word came after house speaker kevin mccarthy demanded his ouster. an inspector general report accuses blanton of wasting taxpayer money. he infuriated many in congress by staying away from congress during the january 6th insurrection. he told lawmakers he couldn't drive there because so many people were already there, so he used the work vehicle as a command post. >> i am outraged that you would be in a comfortable place, sir, while the rest of us were thinking about dying that day and how we were going to come out alive that day. outrageous that you were not here. >> blanton, a trump appointee, is also accused of offering tours to so-called patriots in the week