forced to turn around. good evening, everybody, i'm larry beil in for dan ashley. >> and i'm ama daetz in for kristen sze. thank you for joining us. now four hours into that flight an unruly passenger threatened that his seatmates -- threatened his seatmates and dared the flight crew to turn the flight around and that flight crew did just that. we'll get more on this story in just a few moments but first we want to turn our attention to the weather. >> yes, and all those predictions about snow in the bay area this week. they were right on the money. highway 29 in napa county very slippery this morning. this video was shot along highway 29 at the summit of mount st. helena in napa county. santa clara county got its share of snow as well. abc 7 news was at mt. hamilton. it was cold and slushy there. the lake observatory was closed. caltrans also closed the road to the summit, but some people hiked up to the snow just to get a feel for it. let's go to abc 7 news weather

anchor spencer christian, not seen playing in the snow. we should see that for what's happening right now. >> if we have enough snow, i'll go out and play in it just for you, larry. here's live doppler 7. we have areas of scattered light rainfall right now but we'll see the rain become much more widespread over the overnight hours. we have a storm coming our way which ranks 2 on the storm impact scale. windy afternoon and evening conditions with rainfall totals likely from half an inch to 2 inches generally across the bay area. here's a forecast animation. by 5:00 tomorrow morning as the commute gets under way, we'll see fairly widespread rain, light to moderate. then it will be much more widespread throughout the day and it will be heavy by the afternoon and evening. expect heavy downpours, ponding on roads. winds gusting tomorrow. and rainfall potential over the next seven days is significant. if these indications, these

projections hold up, san jose will get 5.65 inches of rain over the next seven days, and that is more than one-third of san jose's average annual rainfall total. there's a lot of rain coming our way. i'll give you a closer look a little later. >> thank you, spencer. the crab season in the bay area is on hold. san francisco fishermen vow to stay docked while a large west coast strike continues. all this over a price dispute. abc 7 newser lee an melendez has more. >> reporter: of course now i'm thinking i could have bought some crab this weekend while i had a chance, right? so we're talking about a 25 cents difference, 25 cents per pound. now fishermen say that adds up and they would end up losing a lot of money. >> so everybody is staying in solidarity. >> reporter: that's the update from the crab boat owners

association after phone meetings this morning with other crab fishermen up and down the coast. the strike began last wednesday after a large buyer tried to renegotiating the price per pound from $3 to $2.75. >> the holidays are over and some of the bigger buyers think they got to go into the freezer with it and so they want to get it for less. >> reporter: pacific choice did not return our request for a statement. even though san francisco fishermen are still getting $3, they will stay idle while the strike continues. j.t. bednarik is visiting from detroit. he refused to buy any crab today. >> even though we're cross country and, you know, it's the difference between autos and crab, but still it's the brotherhood of the union. >> reporter: this marin county resident thinks tourists at fishermen's wharf will see a spike in the price. >> some people coming in from out of state and out of the country only have a couple days,

so they might pay. >> reporter: do you think it's going to go up? >> i think it will until they get rid of what they have. >> reporter: that is if they have any left. antonelli's ran out just before new year's eve. >> we had enough to cover orders, but the 31st people coming in all day long and there was nothing. so that hurts. >> reporter: he hopes the dispute ends soon. crab season is meant to continue through june 30th. in san francisco, lee yanne melend melendez, abc 7 news. now to that story about the unruly passenger who threatened his seatmates and dared the flight crew to turn the plane around, which they did. the plane flew out of sydney, australia, headed to san francisco. somewhere over tonga the pilot announced they would turn around and head to auckland. we are live at san francisco international airport with the story. >> reporter: because of the way things work when you're actually traveling the international

dateline, those passengers were supposed to have arrived here yesterday but because they were diverted to new zealand and had to stay overnight, they only got here this morning. in cell phone video, you can see the man losing his temper with the flight attendant. >> i'm not yelling at you. >> reporter: this was an incident that started several minutes into the flight. he was not happy about sitting between two other men. >> i think they were briefly talking to each other, like can you pass me the pen to fill out the paperwork or, hey, we're going home finally and that was it. the guy got really upset they were talking over him. >> reporter: it was a full flight so the man couldn't be relocated to another section of the plane, but you can see in the video, he did switch to an aisle seat on the same row. that didn't stop him from acting out. >> he basically threatened the other two passengers. told them if they say one more word, that -- don't say another word. >> reporter: that's when the flight crew intervened again.

>> do you want me to call the captain -- >> do you know how cool it would be to have the airplane turned around? you're going to do that? you do that. i'm going so impolite, aren't i. >> reporter: the captain decided to turn the plane around and head to new zealand. when they landed two hours later, the man was escorted off the plane by police. a spokesperson provided a short statement. the flight was diverted due to a badly behaved passenger, a 42-year-old foreign national. he was arrested on arrival in auckland and has been referred to immigration new zealand. the crew couldn't continue the flight after they landed because their work hours would have expired so united the to put the whole flight up in a hotel in new zealand overnight. criticism of 49ers owner jed york is intensifying after yet another dismal performance by his team. reporters grilled york today over the direction of the 49ers a day after he fired coach chip kelly and general manager trent baalke. york apologized for the niners'

2-14 season which tied for the worst in the team's 70-year history but dismissed any notion that he needs to go. >> i own this football team. you don't dismiss owners. i'm sorry that that's the facts and that's the case, but that's the fact. and i'm going to do everything that i can to get this right. >> york says he'll have help finding a new coach and general manager, but wouldn't specify who that will be. the teamest next head coach will be its fourth in four years. down but not out, a day after their team suffered another setback. laura anthony is joining us live at raiders headquarters. head coach jack del rio just briefed reporters. laura? >> reporter: well, hi, larry. others may be writing off the oakland raiders in the wake of injuries to both derek carr and matt mcgloin, you won't hear any of that here at team

headquarters. in fact head coach jack del rio told us with a void comes an opportunity. >> how are you doing? >> ugly game yesterday, ugly game yesterday. >> reporter: it was a different kind of new year's hangover for oakland raiders fans, the kind that comes with watching yet another quarterback go down. >> what were you thinking when you saw mcgloin go down yesterday? >> oh, lord. that's all i could say. >> reporter: with the injury to backup matt mcgloin, the raiders' chances of winning the afc west went out the door, though third string rookie, connor cook, seemed to hold his own. the raiders and their fans are clearly feeling victimized. >> now we've got to go to houston, so we're not feeling too well. at least raider nation, it's kind of tough. >> the bottom line for us is all about recovery as quick as possible. get up off the mat, dust yourself off, get to work, get ready for the houston texans. >> reporter: that's not to say that raider nation has lost the faith. backs against the wall and all. >> it's a touchdown.

>> i guess we're going to have to go with cooks. we'll hope for the best. >> it's a hard road, but there's always hope in a raider fan. always hope in a raider sglan i really felt yesterday, i thought, you know, when we generated that turnover right after a score, i thought here we go. we're getting ready to do it again. and it just didn't quite materialize there. but we've got a good group. >> reporter: in alameda, laura anthony, abc 7 news. >> if there's any kind of silver and black lining to saturday's playoff game, it's that the raiders will be playing a team that has a bunch of quarterback issues of their own. the houston texans haven't announced who they'll be starting at quarterback either. brock osweiler or tom savage. savage left yesterday's game against the titans with a concussion, and he became the texans starter only a couple of games ago when they benched osweiler because of poor play and despite an enormous contract. neither of them has started a playoff game, so you've got two quarterbacks or two teams with

quarterbacks that have major issues and the defenses have to step up. the raiders have to play a lot better and bring a lot more intensity than they did in denver. the bright side for us is you can watch the raiders kick off wild card weekend. they're traveling to houston to play the texans starting at 1:30 on saturday. again, saturday playoff game right here on abc 7. social media backlash. a woman whose kidnapping was thought to be a hoax reaches out. the online battle over what she thought was part of her past. that's next. plus pushing wheelbarrows, pulling out the hoses, a whole lot of cleanup one day after a water main break made a mess of 1 neighborhood in contra costa county. plus traveling in 2017. how low will airfares go?

a couple at the center of a kidnapping in vallejo that police once called a hoax are talking via social media and really for the first time. melanie woodrow is in the newsroom with why. melanie. >> well, larry, the couple was kpap expecting to deliver victim impact statements but now matthew muller e's sentencing h been pushed back to march, despite the fact that he pleaded guilty to the kidnapping and despite the fact police have apologized to denise huskins and aaron quinn in letter, the couple says they are still being harassed. denise huskins says her past continues to haunt her. are you that horrible lying woman who faked her own kidnapping, reads part of a stranger's message huskins posted to facebook. the message threatened physical violence and is too vulgar to show in its entirety here. vallejo police initially called it a hoax. >> miss huskins has plundered valuable resources away from our community. >> reporter: but police got it wrong.

matthew muller pleaded guilty to huskins' kidnapping. huskins writes on facebook, all i did was survive and i was criminalized for it. we are trying to do the right thing and let the system do its job, but here we are starting our new year hoping for a more positive future, but confronted with hate and ignorance. on his page her boyfriend, aaron quinn, writes denise endured unimaginable horrors. nevertheless she conducts herself with love and grace. she's my favorite person and unquestionably my hero. denise later writes we must meet hate with love, ignorance with empathy. 2017 will be a year of great changes, i feel it. according to court documents, muller's sentencing was pushed back to march because he needed additional time to prepare. in a letter to the judge, a man who says he knew muller in the marine corps writes i have always felt that matthew muller was a round peg struggling to fit into a square hole. melanie woodrow, abc 7 news. today marks one month since the deadly ghost ship fire in

oakland. abc z7 news was at the site as people continued to pass by and remember the victims. the fence around the building is filled with poinsettias and christmas decorations. some wanted to reflect on what was lost. >> i feel like i almost have an obligation to push on because they didn't have a chance to, all the victims. so that's the way that i am sort of dealing with it. >> 36 people died in the fire on december 2nd. the alameda county district attorney is still determining if any criminal charges will be filed. a broken water main has been replaced, but the cleanup is hardly over. abc 7 news was there yesterday just after a 12-inch main gave way, flooding businesses and homes. today restoration crews and homeowners spent the day assessing the damage and cleaning up. that break was on a hill and water carrying a whole bunch of gravel flowed for over an hour before crews arrived. >> here it just backed up against the back of the building

and found its way through the wall and came through some of our garages. some had more water, like this one. i had less. >> he still hasn't heard from anybody at east bay mud. they tell abc 7 news the water main break was likely due to ground movement or corrosion. a rigorous inspection of the water system gets under way tomorrow. crews will spend the next 60 days traversing the 19-mile long mountain tunnel, a major connector from the reservoir to the bay area. the inspection will help them decide whether the century-old tunnel can be saved or will need to be replaced. it will be the longest the tunnel has been shut down since 1980. bay area residents won't see any disruption in water service. consumer news now, from car sales to home sales, a lot to talk about. >> michael finney is here with all of it. hi, michael. >> you know, it doesn't feel like it but airfares, the price, went down last year. >> really? >> substantially. airfares went down. the price dropped about 14% to

an average of $212. this year fares overseas are expected to drop even more. and more transatlantic low-cost airlines are coming online. that's the reason, dropping the price for european travel by as much as half. so what's the catch? charges for luggage, meals, seat location and all the rest, so be careful. you could end up paying more even though the actual fares are less. existing home sales are projected to rise 2% this year. that's down from 3.33% last year. the national association of realtors says rising mortgage rates is contributing to falling sales. hardest hit, low and moderate income buyers who will have trouble qualifying for loans at the new prices. that said, with rent soaring in many areas, owning homes is still considered a much better deal. when auto sales figures are released wednesday, they're

expected to show sales at just more than 17.5 million cars during 2016, a great year for the auto industry. one that was slowing down towards the end of the year. now, that has car makers and dealers rolling out sales and special deals, making 2017 a potentially great year to buy a car. modest priced cars are expected to get the lion's share of the discounts with midlevel suvs seeing the very best deals. luxury car sales are not expected to slack much so deals there will be much harder to come by. >> new and used? >> new is what they're looking at here. they're getting paranoid because they started slowing down. they had a great year and it started slowing down so the deals are already beginning to roll out. it's going to be a great year. >> thank you, michael. batman is in custody in san jose, sort of. overnight sheriff's deputies responded to the allen rock transit center following reports of a man who was in a batman-like mask kind of acting strangely, brandishing what

looked like a handgun. it took authorities more than 30 minutes to get him to surrender. when he did the handgun he was reportedly carrying turned out to be a toy. deputies say they have had previous encounters with the suspect while he was dressed as superman. it looks like 2017 is getting off to a stormy start. here's live doppler 7. we have little pockets of scattered rainfall at the moment, but it's going to become much more than scattered overnight. right now we're looking at cloudy conditions over san francisco and over our bay. it's currently 51 here in the city, oakland a cooler 47. it's 50 at mountain view and san jose, 49 at gilroy. this is the view from the east bay hills camera. there are little breaks of brightness but clouds are getting lower and we have more temperature readings. 44 in santa rosa, 50 in napa. novato 48, 46 at fairfield. concord 50 and 48 at livermore. this is a view from our rooftop camera looking out over the

embarcadero. we'll see scattered showers tonight with snow levels coming down to about the 2500-foot level. we'll see heavy rainfall with windy conditions tomorrow and this unsettled pattern that begins now will continue through the week. storm impact scale indicates that the approaching storm, the one coming in tomorrow, ranks 2 on the scale. a storm of moderate intensity will produce moderate to heavy rainfall. we expect rainfall totals ranging from half an inch to about 2 inches generally an it will be windy in the afternoon and evening which will probably make for a messy commute. starting the forecast animation at 8:00 tonight, notice overnight we'll see more widespread rain developing. 5:00 tomorrow morning it will be pretty rainy across most of the bay area. at that point it will be light to moderate rain but look how the moderate heavy rain moves in by midday, continues through the afternoon and into the evening tomorrow. it's going to be drenching tomorrow and only start to taper off early wednesday morning. even then wednesday we expect more pockets of rain or periods of rainfall. wind gusts by 3:00 tomorrow

afternoon will range between 20 and 30 miles per hour. stronger in some coastal locations. point reyes expected to see gusts over 40 miles per hour and those winds will taper off late tomorrow night. look at projected rainfall totals. by 11:00 or so we expect rainfall totals to be over 2 inches at santa rosa, nearly 2 inches at novato, napa and fairfield. over an inch in san francisco. about 0.7 in oakland and san jose so it's going to be quite a wet pattern all across the bay area. meanwhile in the sierra, winter weather advisories in effect until 10:00 tomorrow morning by which point we expect 5 to 10 inches of snow and a winter weather warning is in effect from 10:00 tomorrow morning to 4:00 a.m. thursday. snow will be heavy at times with who whiteout conditions. strong gusts over the ridges and snowfall totals by 4:00 a.m. thursday will be over 2 feet in some areas and the snow will be continuing on, so we could see 3 feet of snow in some places by friday in the sierra.

overnight today look for low temperatures in the low to mid-40s. our rain chances over the next 7 days 100% the next couple of days. looking just a little bit farther ahead, 10:00 friday night look for another wave of rain coming in for the weekend, both days saturday and sunday, with strong gusty winds once again. here's the accuweather seven-day forecast. so a storm ranking 2 on the impact scale tomorrow. another storm ranking 1 on the impact scale on wednesday. a little bit lighter. possibly a dry day on thursday but then more rainy weather on friday and storms over the weekend ranking 2 each day saturday and sunday. you can track all this with the abc 7 news app, which i highly recommend to stay on top of the developing weather. >> and a lot to track. thank you, spencer. well, still ahead tonight, the morning commute. why drivers on the golden gate bridge might see some delays. new at 6:00, a new stove nightmare from 7 on your side. we live in a pick and choose world.

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traffic is flowing smoothly right now at the golden gate bridge but that might not be the case tomorrow when the commute ramps back up following the holidays. now, we've learned a section of the bridge's movable median barrier has been damage andy will prevent crews from shifting it to the usual four-lane southbound configuration for tomorrow morning's commute so it will be three lanes each way. anyone coming in from marin tomorrow should plan on leaving earlier. the cause of the damage hasn't been determined. automaker chrysler fiat has announced it's teaming up with google to bring the android technology to power a new in-car infotaimment system. it would have google maps, pandora and spotify among others. google has laid out some ambitious plans to have its android system in nearly every part of the car, including climate and gas mileage. one of winter's biggest

frustrations, having to take your gloves off to use your smartphone. >> because some of us are constantly tweeting. gloves are supposed to solve this problem. here's a closer look at the work with gadget website the wire cutter. >> reporter: nick guy of wirecutter.com, a website that advises on best gadgets, evaluated 12 pairs of touch screen gloves to find out how well they work. >> looking at all of these, they don't have these tips we're so used to seeing. >> no. they actually sew in silver and copper thread that conduct electricity and allow you to use your touch screen as if you weren't wearing gloves. >> reporter: to test it nick camped out in a temperature-controlled brewery cooler, keeping it consistently frosty, just above freezing, while he texted, used apps and played games. now it's my turn with wire cutter's picks. >> it's cold in here. >> it is cold. >> 37 degrees. >> got to keep the beer chilly.

>> first up, the moshi digits. >> these were our favorite gloves. they were nice and warm but we were able to type really well with the thumbs on them. >> how well can i type in a brewery cooler? well, no typos. >> looks like you did pretty good. >> reporter: nick's advice, get gloves with gripping materia on the palm. see how well the phone stays in the glove? and get a tight fit. watch out for gloves with extra material or seams on the tip. that reduces touch screen at. -- ability. celebrating canines still

coming up on abc 7 news at 6:00, we are off to a wild week in the bay area weatherwise. there is snow in the hills, there's more rain on the way. in fact it's going to rain pretty much all week long. don't make any plans until you

see our latest accuweather forecast coming up at 6:00. also -- >> they actually slept in the house, left smoke butts. >> there has been a rash of break-ins at homes in the east bay. the burglars are targeting one type of home in particular. it's all coming up in half an hour on the abc 7 news at 6:00. finally tonight, this will make you smile for sure. hundreds of thousands may have packed the streets of pasadena for the rose bowl parade but a four-legged affair in florida drew a much more intimate crowd. ♪ we are family >> about 200 short-legged weiner dogs took part in the annual key west dachshund walk. most of the dogs were costumed and so were their owners. >> you see the lady on the left dressed as princess leia in honor of the late carrie fisher. thousands come out for this annual event that still retains a neighborhood feel in key west. beagles need not apply. this is dachshunds only.

>> thank you for joining us. "world news tonight with david muir" is next. i'm ama daetz. >> tonight as we come on the air, millions in the path of severe storms. reports of multiple tornadoes touching down, texas slammed by heavy rain and strong winds. this gas station torn apart. 14 million in the storm zone tonight. our ginger zee standing by. breaking news, the investigation under way right now. four children killed. >> there was a strange odor in the house. >> the dangerous pesticide under their home. chilling new video of the suspect in that deadly nightclub attack. how he may have escaped, and the wounded american speaking out saying he played dead to survive. a police takedown under fire. a call for a man with a knife, officers plowing into him with a cruiser. questions tonight about that arrest. >>