jenna: new action on capitol hill linked to the missing emails in the irs political targeting scandal. hope you're off to a great stay so far. i'm jenna lee. jon: i'm jon scott. frustrations mounting as lawmakers try to get to the bottom of what happened to those lost lois lerner emails. they're hearing from the man in charge of the justice department investigation. attorney general james coal remaining tight-lipped what he found thus far. >> i understand you're interested in learning about the results of the investigation, in order to protect the integrity and independence of this investigation we can not disclose non-public information about the investigation while it remains pending. >> our chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel live on capitol hill. bring us up-to-date, mike. >> reporter: jon, part of the deputy attorney general's mission today is to convince some skeptical law make that's

the justice department is taking the irs investigation seriously. >> i know you are frustrated by the fact that i can not at this time disclose any specifics about the investigation i do pledge to you that when our investigation is completed we will provide congress with detailed information about the facts we uncovered, and the conclusions we reached in this matter. >> reporter: recent irritation from many lawmakers, that irs commissioner john koskinen knew there was issue with former irs official lois lerner's email in april but koskinen didn't tell congress and the public about it until mid-june. >> we like to know about the loss of emails. >> this is big deal he waited two months. >> depend what circumstances. >> the circumstances he knew in april. i asked him last week he knew in april. why didn't you tell us, he waited two months. >> i would like to know all the circumstances from him as to why there was two-month wait. >> i would have known right away

as well. >> before i answer the question whether it's a big deal. >> reporter: let's look at house oversight committee hearing lawmakers are pressing the united states attorney general have a attorney general for d.c. take a contempt citation to a grand jury. there was criticism this is the 10th hearing on irs matter. >> the irs spent more than $11 million responding to congressional investigations. it is time to stop wasting me as a tax -- millions of taxpayer dollars and start focusing on reforms to help our government work more effectively and efficiently for the american people. >> reporter: short time ago the d.e.p.ity attorney general got a lech sure from house oversight chairman darrell issa not wanting to a bad witness like his boss the attorney general. cole insisted he is not trying to be a bad witness. jon? jon: nobody wants to be a bad witness, do they?

mike emanuel on capitol hill? thank you. mike. jenna: israel's military reportedly considering a ground invasion of gaza, saying it foiled a hamas tunnel attack foiling dozen terrorists trying to sneak into the jewish state. david lee miller on the border with the late zest. >> reporter: jenna, in the last three hours since the humanitarian cease-fire ended militants from gaza fired 40 rockets into israel. as i speak to you at this moment we understand that central israel is under attack. sirens are going off. people are running into shelters. not far where i'm talking to you right now near the border a mortar landed. also resouping today the israeli airstrikes over gaza. it is as if the humanitarian cease-fire never even took place. and only hours earlier 13 militants infiltrated israel using a tunnel along the border.

we got a first-hand look at the site. israeli military now excavating the area where the tunnel surfaced. the location is abouthundred yard or so from the border, not very far away is an israeli community where a few hundred people live. it is not clear what the intention was of the militants. they were very heavily armed. we're told they had with them, rocket-propelled grenades as well as other weapons. this is possible this may abu side type mission to kill as many israelis as possible. they may have been trying to kidnap a israeli and take as many israelis as possible back to gaza to simply hold them hostage. authorities say this much is certain, the tunnel discovered today is not only one militants have been working on and would like to use to infiltrate israel no bodies were recovered and no one was captured in that

incident. it is believed that despite an aerial assault, the militants made their way back into that tunnel. the last time there was infiltration into israel using a tunnel was in 2006. an israeli soldier was kidnapped at that time. he was exchanged later for some 1,000 plus palestinian prisoners. and lastly, jenna, in another development, the palestinian president, mahmoud abbas, speaking in cairo a short time ago to arab language television says he expects the bloodshed to stop within one or two days. right now no agreement. back to you. jenna: here we are day tens as you mentioned david lee. thank you. jon: new polling on the 2016 presidential race seems to gift edge to hillary clinton with gallup finding she is the best-known and best-liked of all the potential candidates out there. take a look how she stacks up against possible democratic challengers. she is way ahead of

massachusetts senator elizabeth warren and does better than vice president biden. still there are whispers she is making some of the same missteps she made in 2008, last time she ran for the white house, namely focusing too much on her resume' and not enough on her vision for the future. jonathan allen, bloomberg washington bureau chief, coauthor of a piece that reads, while clinton has touched on policy issues in her new memoir and steady schedule of speeches andviews she has yet to draw a full portrait where she wants to lead the country. jonathan allen, coauthor of the piece. jonathan, she hasn't said she isn't running is she expected to lay out vision for the future if she isn't even running? she has time to do that. she essentially has been running for president since 2006. we heard why she has experience, resume', credentials to be president of the united states. one of the big failures of our

2008 campaign i think her inability to articulate a clear vision where she wanted to take america and connect her policies to that vision and those policies to people's daily lives. i think that is something that is going to be a challenge for her going into 2016 should she in fact pull the trigger and run. i expect that we're going to hear a little bit more about that vision for the future but something she struggled with in the past. >> you say in her piece, especially young people are yearning for a people leader who is decisive and deft with levers of power. has she proven herself that she is that kind of leader. >> no question, white house councils and involved with debates with president obama she pushed him to make decisions more quickly. she felt he was too deliberative. she wasn't only one in those meetings that felt that way. she understands how government works in washington and how government works around the world. whether she is able to apply that to try to move the country

in a direction that the country wants to be moved is another question. i think that's why the vision is such an important thing. why that narrative of who she is and where she wants to bring the country matters so much to voters. jon: so much of what president obama is focusing on these days and he seems to have a large party, a large part of the party in his camp is income inequality. can hillary clinton at her, hundreds of thousands of dollars per speech fee, can she talk, can she appeal, to the folks who are concerned about income inequality and, you know, a $10 an hour minimum wage? >> she is off to a bad start on that with the comments about she and her husband being dead broke in some subsequent interviews where she struggled with that. in democratic politics it never has been a sin to be wealthy. it has been a sin not to be able to talk with the rhetoric of improving conditions for the working and middle classes. so if she is able to become a champion for those folks, i

think she will do well within the democratic party. as poll numbers suggest, the democratic party is pretty unified behind her right now. jon: 90% approval ratings. the problem is, she had, huge approval ratings going into the 2008 candidacy and barack obama rode up behind her and stole her thunder. >> i think the key difference there is not a barack obama candidate on horizon right now. you talk about some other candidates. you measure where they are. elizabeth warren, joe biden, martin o'malley, people that might jump into a campaign they are starting off i think farther behind where barack obama was in part because hillary clinton has done a pretty good job getting democrats behind her. i think the key moment was actually accepted barack obama's offer to be secretary of state, a big knock against her and her husband. they were out for themselves. that was something shared not only by republicans and democrats. when she decided to work for him and served him fairly loyally in

his cabinet i think that made a lot of democrats convinced she could put something above her own immediate interest. you and i both know the long-range interest may do what she did, appeal to democratic constituencies at least in part. interesting to watch that. democrats are very, very unified behind her. jon: i know you focus on her and democrats in this particular piece but on the republican side who do you see as her greatest threat? which republican stacked up against hillary givesser had the biggest problem? >> i think really exciting race to watch right now is on the republican side because you've got such a set of young, vigorous candidates, many of whom aren't particularly well-known, if you look at "gallup polling" they don't have familiarity with the american public that hillary clinton does and there is different directions they could go. marco rubio, for instance, very interesting candidate, got himself in trouble with the republican base on immigration a while back. you're starting to see him

reemerge as can day. rand paul is seemingly the frontrunner. look at all polling, look at data, look at his ability to appeal outside of the traditional republican base, i think you're seeing a scramble among other republican candidates right now to try to be the anti-rand candidate and pick up as much as mainstream support as possible. he is interesting to watch. reaction is interesting to watch. rob portman, senator from ohio, recently said he is looking possibly running. chris christie from new jersey. matches up as well with hillary clinton as anybody else does. jon: yeah. >> i think republican side is fascinating to watch right now. jon: after some pretty dismal years do you suppose hope and change will be the republican slogan in 2014? >> i think those, i think those word will be put in mothballs for a long time. jon: all right. jonathan allen, good to talk to you. thank you. >> take care, jon. jenna: zeroing in on the whereabouts of a pregnant wife of a marine we'll tell you where police are looking in the care of erin corwin, missing now for more than two weeks.

[shouting] the border crisis setting off political fireworks across the nation. then came word of a plan to house some illegal immigrants near our border in a resort hotel. the latest on that. we want to know about jon's conversation about hillary clinton. is hillary clinton repeating same mistakes she made in 2008. our live chat up and running. fox news.com/happeningnow and click on "america's asking."

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robbers took three women hostage during get away. it turned into a violent shootout with a hostage and two suspects dead. hawaii man facing murder charges after discovery of a woman's jawbone. 27-year-old carlie scott disappeared back in february. she was five months pregnant. her ex, now indicted for her murder. authorities say he killed scott and set her car on fire to cover it up. jenna: one of our big stories. the government scrambling to find places to put tens of thousand of illegal immigrants pouring over our border in recent months. we learn ad non-profit organization with federal back something dropping plans to buy a resort hotel to house some undocumented children. meantime protests continue in towns where residents say immigrants, might be arriving. william la jeunesse live in our west coast newsroom with more. william? >> reporter: jenna, remember two weeks ago the president said that children arriving illegally to the u.s. would be sent home. unfortunately headlines there

are telling a different story. papers in guatemala saying 97% of the children sent here, stay here. in fact the guatemalan council in houston said of 240 children he interviewed last week in texas shelter, only one was not going to reunify with family in the u.s. that is only because he had no relatives here. and word out of washington for them, is even more encouraging as leading democrats oppose changing the law to send kids back in 10 days or less. and the president reportedly saying that he supports using executive power to approve a quote, broad and generous am necessary for illegals already here. republicans on a different page. hoping to quickly repatriate illegals as the cost of keeping them here rockets to as much as $1,000 per day per immigrant. >> i think now we're starting to

he see human cost and economic cost of providing care for those who have interred the country illegally. it behooves us to address this as quickly as possible. >> reporter: case in point, this texas hotel, the administration agreed to pay $50 million each year to take care of just 600 unaccompanied minors. a fraction of the 57,000 it already let in since october 1. the palm aire, offered indoor and outdoor pools, cable, wi-fi, tennis. last time the -- night the charity backed out of the deal getting negative backlash. big picture, pew pole says public nearly 2 to 1 margin disapproves the president's handling immigration surge, congress divided on issue something as small as amending trafficking victims protection act, this problem and cost, jenna, not going away anytime soon. back to you. jenna: william, thank you. jon: the efforts to fix america's immigration system go back decades n the 1980s under

president reagan, congress pass ad program intending to penalize employers who hired unauthorized workers. the act legalized three million undocumented people in the country but did not provide resources to implement the employer penalties. in the '90s. the clinton administration banned return of immigrants without proper documents. people fleeing persecution were required to apply for asylum in one year and local police could be deppized as immigration officials. in year 2,000. residents could adjust status permanent without first leaving country and creation of a temporary visa allowed spouses and children of green cardholders to reunite with their families in the united states. jenna: a big company making a major announcement today, impacting thousands of workers. how microsoft's latest acquisition will dress i canally

change the company. -drastically change the company. we'll get into that. israel's iron dome system is saving lives and is a fantastic success. how it works and how you help to pay for it next. when you run a business, you can't settle for slow.

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turkey club. the fastest pencil sharpener. the fastest elevator. the fastest speed dial. the fastest office plant. so why wouldn't i choose the fastest wifi? i would. switch to comcast business internet and get the fastest wifi included. comcast business. built for business. jon: bad news on the jobs front. nearly 18,000 jobs set to be cut over the next year. microsoft announcing a huge wave of layoffs as the software giant works on integrating the nokia business that it purchased in april. the acquisition boosted microsoft's employee headcount by nearly 30,000. microsoft says many of the layoffs will be in factory jobs and most will be overseas. it will cost microsoft more than a billion dollars in severance payout. microsoft's stock up, slightly today. jenna: moving back overseas now,

hamas firing rockets into israel just moments after a humanitarian cease-fire ends. the truce comes just hours after israel says it stopped an underground attack from hamas, striking more than a dozen terrorists heading into israel through a tunnel. you're seeing some video of that on a screen. israel's iron dome system is proving successful. the missile is claiming the missile intercepting technology is striking down 90% of its targets. the united states play as crucial role in iron dome success. your tax dollars help pay for that. in washington a senate subcommittee is set to vote on brand new iron dome funding, doubling it next year to more founder and chairman of the missile defense advocacy alliance, a non-profit that advocates missile defense system for the united states and our allies. in the plainest language you can provide how exactly cuts iron dome system work? >> it's a system that can detect

a rocket launch within a couple seconds. it has an x band and s band or l band radar can pick up the trajectory. it is able to calculate a impact point and send a missile, intercept a missile mach 2 next to it and as a device that does proximity fuse that blows up and fragmentation hits incoming missile. jenna: how crucial is the technology to the battlefield in israel right now? >> well that technology, we have, think nine firing batteries that protect a little over half the israeli population right now from gaza. it is absolutely critical in the protection of 4 million lives. it also prevents the most important thing, is preventing all-out confrontation or allout war on gaza. it is stabilizing the area so you can do humanitarian, you can do peace talks, you can find a way out of the system without going to war.

jenna: as we realize it would be a very different situation if the success rate was not 90%. we should mention and we'll show the animation we had shows how the iron dome system works. even when missiles are intercepted, when the rockets are struck down, still shrapnel can fall to the streets. that still is a safety concern for israelis. ricky, talk to us a little bit about our support for this system and our role in it as well. if it, looks likes we're going to approve this extra $300 million, that would be more than a billion dollars taxpayer money over last several years go to the iron dome system. what exactly is our role and our role moving forward with making sure that the system continues to work? >> our role has been really to finance the system. we started financing the iron dome system back in 2011 and have probably bought a little over 50, 60% of the current capability that is in place today. that capability is basically a radar, a firing unit, which has

five launchers. excuse me, three launchers with about five missiles a pack. so 20 a pack. so there's a, there is a lot of different capability that we are providing funding for. we're not telling israel what those capabilities should be but they are using that money to be able to do the nine batteries they have in the system today. they need at least 13, maybe even more than that to adequately cover israel. they can not afford to do that so we are in charge of that. jenna: what is the benefit to us? >> well, it prevents, it prevents a conflict, we would have to come in and support israel. it stablizes the population there. it staibizeing our, one of our strongest allies in the middle east. jenna: we'll have to leave it there. we have breaking news. great to see you. it is an important story and we'll continue to cover it. thank you very much. >> thank you. jon: a fox news alert and strange and sad news out of

russia and the ukraine. that trail of smoke, that cloud of smoke that you see burning there in the distance, apparently is from a malaysia airlines jetliner. yes, once again, malaysia airlines back in the news. we understand that a boeing triple seven that malaysia airlines was operating, the same folks who lost that 777 some months ago, that 777 crashed somewhere we believe in ukraine. it is on the ground in ukraine although whatever incident brought it down may have taken place over russian airspace. again, this malaysian airlines flight we understand was flying from kuala lumpur, excuse me, from amsterdam to kuala lumpur in malaysia. it has apparently crashed or crash-landed somewhere in the

ukraine. 280 passengers, 15 crewmembers on board we understand. it is, just another, another problem for malaysia airlines. the airport where the flight apparently departed has said, while they are not making any comment right now. again, malaysia airlines, a 777, apparently crashed in ukraine where there is so much trouble right now. what brought it down we do not know. more as we get it. back with more "happening now" just ahead. avo: waves don't care what age you are. take them on the way you always have. live healthy and take one a day men's 50+. a complete multivitamin with 7 antioxidants to support cell health. age? who cares.

jon: fox news alert. back to the story with which we left you at the break. that cloud of black smoke in the distance there, this is video from ukraine. we understand that to be the crash site of a malaysia airlines boeing 777. it was reportedly on a flight from amsterdam to kuala lumpur in malaysia. it was traveling through russian

airspace we understand and then started to descend for reasons as yet unknown. it ended up on the ground we believe in ukraine. of course russia and ukraine have been at each other's throats in recent months. whether this is some kind of a military attack, some kind of a revenge shoot-down, we do not know but malaysia airlines is confirming that there has been quote, an incident. that is all they are saying. the airport where this thing took off apparently is refusing to comment. you might recall back when malaysia airlines, that malaysia airlines flight disappeared over what we believe to be the indian ocean you might are recall that malaysia airlines was very slow on releasing information. it is perhaps no surprise all they're saying there has been an incident but that's all we know right now. we hate to get too far out on a him what happened to this particular jet.

jenna: definitely, well-put, jon. we're look act news we're getting from sage r agencies like reuters. reuters says video you're seeing on the screen, also coming into our newsroom has been published by ukrainian activists. we can't forget the situation on the ground between ukraine and russia. we checked weather report notice area whether that could be a factor. as you see on the screen that looks like a fairly clear day. according to what we know about the boeing 777, 295 people on board, 208 passengers, 15 crew. looking through come conflicting reports. that is what we're being told what you're seeing on your screen there, the remnants of what is a plane crash. jennifer griffin is working the story as well from the pentagon and has been closely following the situation on the ground between ukraine and russia. it hasn't made a ton of headlines this week, jen, it is important to mention the context which this is all occurring and tension still between these two countries.

what is important for our viewers to consider as we take in some of this breaking news? >> reporter: jenna, right now most of the information that we are get are from russian sources, from russian media sources who are suggesting that this malaysia boeing 777 went down inside of ukraine near the town of torres. that is from a ukrainian r journalist on the ground. that is from the donetsk region. that is ethnically russian separatist area where russia is supporting accused of supporting the separatists there. in the last 24 hours there has been at least one plane allegedly shot down by russian surface-to-air missiles. that is according to the ukraine national security council. we know that a fighter jet, a sukoy 25, went down yesterday. the pilot, the ukrainian pilot evacuated and managed to save himself but that ukraine jet,

ukrainian officials are saying it was a russian missile fired from inside russia that brought down that jet. that jet was flying at high altitude i understand. in the last week there was also a russian cargo plane, i believe we have footage of the aftermath of that plane was reportedly shot down. again the ukrainians blaming russian surface-to-air missiles for that. that cargo plane, ukrainian cargo plane that went down, it was flying at about 21,000 feet. that is pretty high up. it is not something that would be, that could be brought down by a shoulder-held missile which many of the ukrainian separatists are using at this point in time. we also heard reports from the pentagon in recent days about a flood of russian weapons moving into ukraine, into that separatist region and they include things like a grad rocket system. that is a multiple rocket launcher as well as the buke air

defense, i believe it is an air missile system. that can fire at a high altitude. so it is certainly suspicious right now as we look at these images coming out of ukraine of what seems to be billowing smoke that, and these reports from the ground and russian news agencies of the malaysian boeing 777 having gone down moments ago, jenna. jenna: tensions are rising and apparently quite a week along this particular border of this area of ukraine. if you stand by at the moment, we take in news and have additional guest joining us now. jon: former navy captain chuck nash is fox news military analyst. he joins us now on the phone of the chuck, we don't know a lot. we know that malaysia airlines has confirmed there has been an incident. we have reports out of ukraine that a malaysian airliner flying

from sky pole airport in amsterdam to kuala lumpur has come down. it started in russian airspace and come down somewhere in the area of ukraine. what are your thoughts about this trail of smoke we're seeing in this video? >> like you said, jon, it is way too early to start looking at this. if this aircraft was shot down, and it was, at, as been reported, 21,000 feet, i think all of these things will settle out, nothing is, first reports are normally filled with errors but if it was at altitude, 21,000 feet, probably a radar missile or a radar was used at some point to to target at some point if a infrared missile was

launched there was radar activity to target that, hose signals are discoverable. we have electronic intelligence satellites that monitor areas all the time. given the su-25 was taken down the other day, that could have been a shoulder-fired missile. that could be radar acquired target for a missile. i'm sure we're paying to electronic missiles in that area just out of general interest because of the, the nature of what's going on in the ukraine against that russian border. jon: just looking at the geography, you know, this plane, if it was basically southwest bound out of the netherlands, it would fly all the way across

europe before reaching russian airspace and, that area of the ukraine. it would seem to me that, chuck, it would be all the way up at the very peak of its altitude of that point, somewhere 34, 36,000 feet, just guessing. i'm thinking it would be up a lot higher than 21,000. there is as you the possibility that some kind of, you know, bomb on board the plane or something brought it down t wouldn't necessarily have to be some kind of a missile. >> exactly. you know, given the distance, as you say, that thing was up at cruise altitude. so for whatever reason, 21,000, and it could be a total red herring, total false report. maybe someone saw, you know, was monitoring the aircraft on a lot of the internet sites where you can follow air traffic

worldwide. maybe somebody was looking at that, saw 21,000, somehow that has been injected into the discussion. we probably should actually drop that from the discussion right now and focus on the fact that the aircraft probably was at cruise altitude. somebody happened that brought it down, either it was controlled and then there was some surface-to-air incident, or there was something that happened on the aircraft, but for whatever reason, that black smoking hole is very, very real. so something happened. jon: yeah. interesting, i'm just looking at the map and trying to figure out the geography, and since we don't at this point know the flight number, it's hard to see how it would have been in russian airspace when its problems began and then ended up in ukraine because you crain lies to the east of most of russia and, you know the flight path of this, of this, of this

aircraft, it was, if it was going basically straight line from netherlands to kuala lumpur, the flight path would seem to go over ukraine first over russia, rather than reverse. we were told, we were told it started developing problems over russia and came down in ukraine. let's talk about potential miss terri aspects of this though. in war, in conflict because that's, i guess what we've got between the ukraine and russia right now, both sides will try to maximize whatever effect they can, whatever pr effect for lack of a better term they can from incidents like this. so one might take an action and try to blame the other. >> absolutely. and of course, you know, it's not just between belligerents, but there is also a tremendous amount of mystery

when you speak of malaysian anyway. jon: right. >> the malaysian air. so, you know, there are a whole raft of things right now that could have caused this aircraft to crash. we speculated on some of them. and another is on-board takeover of the aircraft or something that occurred on the aircraft. maybe not a bomb. maybe a takeover or something and who knows at this point the -- everything is on the table as they say. everything is on the table. you can't rule out a thing. jenna: captain nash that is important for us of the thank you very much. captain nash will stand by. i want to point out to our viewers, we have not been able to independently confirm what you're seeing on your screen right now is the plane going down or the after the effects of a plane crash. we're working off a variety of different reports from the region and trying to do our best to confirm.

malaysia airlines on their official twitter feed says this. malaysia airlines has lost contact of mh-17 from amsterdam. the last known position was over ukrainian airspace. more details to follow. that is all we have from them. what we have from the ukrainian government according to the associated press, advisors to the interior minister, remember, this is still a government that is trying to pull itself together, emerging from a crisis of its own, advisors to the government say the passenger plane was carrying 295, and they say that this plane was shot down. what you're seeing on the right of your screen is the plane's path from the website, flightaware. what that is showing you. that shows the plane started in amsterdam. you see the green line going over into the ukrainian airspace, what we would think would be ukraine rain airspace. as jennifer griffin pointed out to us. this area along the border

between ukraine and russia is a highly contested area with a lot of tensions. jennifer griffin is standing by still with us out of d.c. still continues to work sources over russia and news reports. what else do you have for us? >> reporter: we're hearing from an advisor to the ukrainian interior ministry is that the malaysian plane was allegedly brought down by a surface-to-air missile known as a buke missile. reports on the ground in a town in eastern ukraine said they reported seeing on thursday, a buke rocket launcher. this is highly sophisticated rocket launcher that allegedly came in from russia. it is being provided to ethnic russian separatists operating in that eastern ukraine city. a apreporter saw the rocket lawn cher and we also know that the

malaysian plane was flying at 33,000 feet when it was brought down. that is very high altitude. it would require a very sophisticated rocket or missile system. if in that fact that caused the plane to go down. very interesting reporters had been seeing this new missile launcher being brought into the conflict. pentagon officials told us in recent days they had seen new kind of weapons, sophisticated weapons being brought across the border from russia into ukraine. as we talked about just moments ago, jenna, there were the reports that there was a ukrainian cargo plane that was brought down by a missile that was, allegedly fired from inside russia, just in the last week. that plane crashed. in the last 24 hours a ukrainian fighter jet, su-25 was brought down of the pilot was able to

eject from that plane but shot down allegedly again a surface-to-air missile that believed to have been fired from, from inside russia. so a lot of interesting developments. ukrainian reporters are saying that the plane and the video we're seeing right now is taking place in torres. that's a village in the contested area of donetsk. the malaysian plane had not crossed into russian airspace but had been scheduled to do 9:30 p.m. local time. it never made it across the russian border. jenna? jenna: thank you, jennifer. let's be clear, jon, if indeed this is passenger plane shot down by russia or russian supporters in ukraine, this is a game-changer. i mean we haven't confirmed that yet. obviously there has been tensions as jennifer was just talking about and a lot of military action that has taken to the skies quite frankly in this area. but if this is a passenger jet

and if it has been shot down by russia, one wonders what is next and what we hear from our own government on this? jon: reminders what happened to the korean airlines flight back in the early 1980s, korean air 007, strayed, for a variety of reasons into russian airspace and shot down by a russian fighter plane. there is discussion here that this was shot down by a missile from the ground. of course, no way to know who may have been operating that missile, if in fact that is what happened. let's bring into the conversation, robert mark. a commercial airline pilot. publisher of jetchina.com. maybe we get the map up on our screen of the path of the plane from the website flightaware.com. it shows that the track took the plane from amsterdam where it launched, over germany, over poland and apparently just after it entered ukrainian airspace,

that is ukraine at the very tip of that red arrow, that is ukraine with belarus above it under the arrow. just as it entered ukrainian airspace the thing somehow disappeared from flightaware. malaysia airlines admits there is some kind of an incident. they don't, don't seem to have some kind of information but from standpoint after commercial pilot, robert, this has got to be unthinkable if in fact somebody is firing heat-seeking or guided missiles at commercial civilian airliners? >> well, i think one of the things i would be asking right now is, who filed the flight plan for this airplane? if it was malaysian dispatchers and i had been captain on that airplane, i said, no, sorry guys, i'm not taking that route. i'm not going into a piece of airspace that is that hot. jon: captains have that -- >> stupidest thing i ever heard. jon: captains have that

discretion? >> absolutely true. as i said we all try to take the most effective route, the most efficient route to save fuel and save time but i can not believe that the captain didn't realize where he was going and say, you know, i don't think this is a great idea. i mean whether there are 34,000 feet or not, you just don't go into a hot area where they are shooting at people. that is the craziest thing i ever heard. jon: we have on screen the, the depiction of the boeing 777 and the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder. we still haven't found those from malaysia flight 370, one that disappeared over an ocean. they will certainly get it from this flight because it came down on land but i mean what are the chances that one airline has two of the most significant, in fact, as far as i know, about the only two significant civilian airline disasters in the same year?

>> well, i'm not good with statistics but i'm sure the probabilities are, the numbers are very, very high. i mean, honestly most of us didn't think that malaysia airlines was going to survive after the mh370 situation but of course depending upon what caused this aircraft to come down, you know, it is going to change, it's a game-changer as somebody said earlier. but again, i think the issue is, who sent the airplane through that airspace? and why in the world did the captain take that route into such a hot piece of airspace? i can't understand that. jon: as our jennifer griffin was telling us, there have been a number of cargo planes, smaller planes, even a fighter plane that have been shot down in that vicinity but one, one wouldn't expect fighters on either side to target civilian craft. it is also possible if this was a shoot-down, just so our audience knows, we don't know

that yet for certain, but if this was a shoot-down, a lot of these folks are not very well-trained using some of this military hardware. maybe they pointed it at the sky and pulled the trigger. >> yeah, but of course too, these, surface-to-air -- well, it depend, whether it was a shoulder-fired missile or something from a, that was using more sophisticated ground radar. i mean, heat from the airplane randomly with shoulder-fired missile at 33,000 feet is almost impossible. if they were tracking them that would be a different story but then we go back to my original point, what in the world was that airplane doing there in the first place? jenna: well, that's a good question. quite frankly we don't know the answer to it yet. robert, stand by just for a second. we'll kind of recap here a little bit what we're seeing for our viewers. >> sure. jenna: what you're seeing on the right of the screen is a map of the region we're taking a look at. interestingly enough if you've been watching fox news the last

several months the region highlighted on your screen in yellow where a lot of our reporters, greg palkot, leland vittert would spend a lot of time when they were in ukraine watching tensions surface between russia and ukraine. russia was, due to hot spot. this was area where there was a lot of conflict. jennifer griffin was telling us about continued conflict. that hasn't really reached front pages of newspapers over the last couple weeks buts that been ever-present. the video according to reuters you're seeing getting by way of sky news we have not independently confirmed at this time. what we heard ukrainian activists took this video and have put it out for the world to see. ukrainian government has been commenting. they say the ukrainian government, this passenger plane was shot down as it was nearing into russian airspace. this concept what ukraine

airspace and russian airspace is perhaps not as relevant as it has been in other times. this is contested area of the world and obviously a lot of tension. jon: we are going to pause for one moment now to let our fox stations join us. jon: this is fox news coverage of an aviation mystery, perhaps disaster in ukraine. i'm jon scott with jenna lee in new york. a top of your screen shows you column of black smoke, pouring from a field, a place somewhere

in ukraine where we believe malaysia airlines flight crashed. there are significant number of reports saying the flight was shot downen rout from amsterdam to kuala lumpur in malaysia. it left amsterdam, crossed over germany, crossed over poland and just after entering ukrainian airspace it disappeared from flight radars. this is malaysia airlines flight 17. it was mask lash shun airlines flight 370 disappeared in the spring and still not been located. whether that is coincidence, we do not know. we do not know much about what has taken place here. we do know the malaysian defense minister towarded his -- ordered his agency to look into reports this plane was shot down. it's a boeing 777, 280 people,

280 passengers plus a crew of 15 on board. it is virtually impossible that anybody survived that kind of a wreck. jenna: as we were taking a look there on the map on your screen, we're quickly showing the boeing 777 jon was just mentioning, apparently this plane was five hours plus into an 11-hour flight as it was heading towards kuala lumpur, it had crossed most of europe and entering into a space quite contested recently between russia and ukraine. as of right now we're awaiting any sort of official comment coming either from the malaysia airlines or from own government to find out whether or not this plane was indeed shot down. malaysia airlines made a statement via their twitter feed, their official twitter feed, saying they lost contact with this plane and they don't have anything further yet at this time. we have been reaching out to the pentagon. in fact our pentagon correspondent jennifer griffin is standing by with more

information about what we are or are not hearing at this time. jennifer? >> reporter: jenna, right now we are hearing from the, from the ukrainian interior ministry where officials are saying that it was a bk surface-to-air missile, a -- b u.k. russian surface-to-air missile, brought down the malaysian flight flying over ukraine. what is important to remember in recent days there had been reporters on the ground in the last 24 hours who had seen this very sophisticated russian missile system, enter from russia into the separatist area whereeth thick fighting ukraine wan norses. this buck missile system. can fly range 72,000 feet. a commercial plane malaysia flight 17, reportedly flying

33,000 feet. that is much too high for any soldier fired missile. a sophisticated missile system like the buk missile. can go much higher, 73,000 feet. a ukranian officials are blaming russian surface-to-air missile known as a buk had been brought in from russian territory in recent days according to those reports coming out of ukraine right now. jenna: jennifer, thank you very much. the pentagon spokesman, our pentagon spokesman is saying he seen reports about a downed passenger jet in ukraine but doesn't have anymore information what may have caused the crash. we're relying very heavily on reports from inside ukraine as well as video from what reuters is describing, jon, as local activists. we're still trying to independently confirm, one, this is a plane crash. two, that the plane was indeed shot down. jon: malaysia airlines, again what are the chances, the same airline that lost flight 370, a

ghost ship that still has not been recovered. now malaysian airlines flight 17 disappears. the airline confirms it has lost contact with that boeing 777. that is something that rarely happens in flights over land. in fact i'm not aware of it happening to this day, in a flight over land, that an airline loses contact with one of its vessels. 295 people on board. indications are it was some kind of a hostile act that brought this plane down. we do not know precisely what happened but we're certainly staying on top of it. we have our people at the pentagon. we have our people overseas. fox news is on this story. we will bring you the very latest as we get it. once again, malaysia airlines flight 17 flying from amsterdam to kuala lumpur, an 11-hour flight, non-stop, seems to have disappeared and that ominous smoke cloud growing in that field may tell the story.

stay tuned to fox news channel and this fox station for continuing coverage of this story. i'm jon scott in new york. >> we begin with a fox news alert. i'm harris faulkner. a malaysian passenger jetliner with 295 people on board has crashed in ukraine near the russian border. we continue our coverage of this now on fox news channel. that is according to the news agency interfax, citing an aviation industry source. it says the bowing plane was flying from amsterdam to equally lump pure. this brings -- kuala lumpur. this brings up memories of a missing plane back in march. we focus on flight 17 which has crashed. there are a lot of things being said what could have brought the plane down.