good morning. the crash of asiana flight 214. >> i heard a boom, a pause a second, turned around and looked out the window and saw it tumbling. >> what went wrong? >> asiana 214 he vi, emergency vehicles responding. everyone on their way. >> federal officials spend all night at the triple boeing 747 crash. two people killed, nearly 200 injured. >> they knew something was gone wrong. >> incredibly many passengers walked away without a scratch. >> this could have been much worse. >> now, investigators try to zero-in on what went so terribly wrong. the search for answers, scary last moment and miraculous

stories of survival, today, sunday july 7, 2013. from nbc news, this is "today" with lester holt and erica hill live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. >> welcome to "today." i'm erica hill. >> i'm lester holt. this is the image that's had a lot of us transfixed, the wreckage of asiana 214 as it lie us off the rubway. you look at that and you have to be amazed so many people were able to survive, to get out of that plane, which as we know was ungulfed in fire. two people are dead. it could have been so much worse. this by the way is the first fatal crash involving a major airliner in this country since 2001. >> we want to update you on some of the latest information we have this morning. just hours ago the president of

asiana airlines confirming that the two passengers who were killed were in fact chinese citizens. their seats we're told are at the very back of the plane. he also said two veteran pilots were at the controls during the landing and that the airline does not believe there was any sort of engine failure. just a short time ago the ntsb rortded it has recovered the plane's black boxes and already on their way to headquarters in washington where they'll be analyzed. those of course are key pieces in this investigation. a lot of hope that they may offer a little more insight into exactly what happened to cause this crash. >> coming up in a moment, we're going to talk to a man who was on board that plane along with his daughter who's very happy he's alive. >> yeah. we have complete coverage for you this morning including the very latest on the crash, updates on the injured and the investigation. we want to begin with john yang at san francisco airport. >> we're about a mile away from the end of the runway where asiana flight 214 finally came to rest. when you look at the fuselage

gutted by fire, tail sections broken off, it's hard to believe that so many people simply walked away. until it landed at san francisco international airport, asiana flight 214 had a routine ten and a half hour flight from seoul, south korea. at 11:27 a.m. pacific time the boeing 777 carrying 291 passengers and 16 crew was on its final approach to runway 28 left. some passengers said they thought it was coming in too low. witnesses said the plane's tail struck the seawall beyond the end of the runway before the rest of the fuselage slammed down on the pavement. passengers described the wild ride. >> we hit pretty hard. at that point i think we're going to fly again, but it was just like trying to take off and we crashed back hard. >> a loud noise and the whole plane shook. >> the top just totally collapsed on a lot of people. so a lot of people were injured,

yes. >> the pilot quickly called for help. >> emergency landing. 214 heavy, san francisco tower, asiana 214 heavy, emergency vehicles are responding, we have everyone on their way. >> brian piper saw the crash from a nearby hotel and used his phone to capture the aftermath. >> i heard the boom, i saw the crash. i reached around to grab my phone, my hands were shaking because i knew it was a terrible crash. >> on board, those who could begin finding their way out. >> have flash, you okay, you're alive, you're sitting in your chair and start looking around, doors open, get out. open the door and start ushering people out. >> rescue crews arrived to find the evacuation underway. >> we have multiple members of people coming down the chutes and actually walking to their safety, which was a good thing. >> officials have identified the two dead as 16-year-old girls from china.

and the airline says they were part of one of two groups of middle school students here for summer camp. erica. >> all right, john yang outside sfo for us. john, thanks. >> more than 182 people were transported to hospitals. some remain in critical condition this morning. miguel almaguer is covering that part of the story for us. he's at san francisco general hospital now, the trauma center there. miguel, good morning. >> lester, good morning. of those 182 victims, many were brought to about a dozen bay area hoptds. the vast majority were brought here to san francisco general hospital. some 53 patients made their way through the front doors here. about half of them were actually small children. today, we know at least six remain in critical condition including one child who was in critical condition. so many folks were being brought here in four different waves separated by about an hour apart. that was a similar scene we saw at hospitals all across the bay area. of course the bay area's home to several trauma centers so they

were certainly in good hands. some injuries include broken bones, burns, some other passengers just suffered some scratches and bruises. we're told many of the passengers were shocked, lester, we're told that six of them again are in critical condition including one child who is in critical. lester, back to you. >> miguel almaguer, thank you. >> lester, more than 120 passengers as we mentioned were able to walk away from that crash. they may not have physical wounds at this point, there's no doubt they are shaken up. eugene and his daughter, who was not on the plane, sitting next to her dad here to talk to us. thanks for taking time to talk to us. we spoke briefly before the show started rksz you said you haven't slept yet. not a surprise for most people. eugene, you're a million-miler on asiana. when did you feel that something wasn't right? >> well, when the plane was

descending, i look out the window as usual and i knew something was going wrong because i knew the plane was flying too low. and i was really, you know, prepared. and i thought, you know, i mean, we're going to have a big crash. and bang, that's what happened. >> so you have this big crash. walk us through what was that moment like for you and what happened next. >> well, after our plane hit the ground so hard, of course there was fears and chaos, people were screaming and reaching out to the oxygen mask and all that. and, you know, i mean we thought it's going to flip over or something or explode, you know. and after a few minutes or a few seconds, which i don't remember how long it has been, the plane

finally stopped. at that point there was like silence. everybody was looking at each other with fear in their eyes. and people start crying. and then maybe minutes later we hear a pilot asking us to evacuate from the plane. >> and that by all accountsent pretty smoothly as i understand it, you also helped the flight attendant, who was stuck at one point with one of those chutes. did it go smoothly for everybody getting off the plane? >> yeah. when the plane stopped after, you know, before the captain announced evacuation i saw the flight attendant's light was showing in between. another gentleman from the other

side went around to behind her, i was going to help him to, you know, get her out and there was nothing sharp in the plane. so we could not deflate the slide. so we had a hard time for some time. and then the other gentleman from the other side was able to manage to deflate the slide and she was released from there. and that was the moment the pilot announced the evacuation. amazingly the flight attendant from the other side they were so calm, professional and helped everyone to get off the plane. >> eunice, we can only imagine what the reunion must have been like for you and your dad. tell us, what was it like for you when you saw him? you said you ran to him like you were 6 years old. >> you know, it's every daughter's worst nightmare, especially with a father that travels, you know, since i was a young girl. but i do have to really

salute -- i saw so many young girls, you know, standing in the lounge. and they still had bloodstains on their shirt and they were very, very young. they couldn't have been more than 18, and you could just -- you know, they were confused. they couldn't speak english. and i definitely think this is a time to be soulful, stay human, have some humility and try to support the families that weren't able to reunite yesterday. >> we are glad you two are together and thanks for taking some time to be with us. thanks again. >> thank you. we turn now to the question of what went wrong. this morning, an important development in the investigation, tom castello covers aviation for us. he's live at washington's dull es airport. good morning. >> good morning. the president does not believe this was an engine failure because investigators haven't been in those engines with any realtime yet. so you got to wonder if the

president of the airlines has already learned something from his crew that maybe the rest of us don't know. if he does, you can imagine investigators are going to want to know exactly what the crew says. the broken burned up remains of flight 214 won't move from the runway until ntsb investigators have painstakingly gone through every inch of it. they've already recovered the flight data and cockpit voice recorders. now, multiple teams of ntsb investigators will begin dissecting the entire crash. >> those teams are going to be focused on operations, human performance, survival factors, the airport, airport operation and focusing on the aircraft, the systems, structures and power plans. >> investigators are hoping those black boxes will answer why did the plane's tail slam into the seawall barrier at the

end of runway 28 left? did the pilot land far too short of the runway? if so, why? was it pilot error or mechanical problem? former aviation captain john cox. >> this airplane was on the ground so much earlier, it's going to be up to the ntsb to determine exactly what happened there, but in those last seconds for them to be that low, something was not normal. >> federal sources say the crew did not issue any distress calls suggesting they were not working any mechanical problem prior to the accident. investigators may also look at the instrument landing guidance system at san francisco. since june 1st it had been disabled for runway construction. even though it was a sunny day with visual flight rules, could that have been a factor? former senior ntsb investigator greg fife. >> were they on speed? did they plan for this approach? because this airplane landed short and they were in basically

a very high sink rate, why were they that slow? >> it was seven years ago a british airways crashed in london after ice formed in the fuel line. everyone survived and a worldwide fix was ordered. saturday's crash is the first fatal accident involving a 777. the 777 really has one of the safest safety records in all of aviation. it's been flying since 1994. as we said, this is the first fatal crash. it has flown around the world for lounge haul flights, transcontinental, transatlantic and transpacific. lester. >> tom, thanks. earlier this morning i spoke to ntsb chairman debbie herzman and given the amount of evidence already, were they confident they would be able to find out what went wrong. >> i am confident in the ability of our investigators to get to the bottom of this. as you said, we have a lot of good information. we need to look at it and see what it tells us. >> has your team or faa had a

chance to even have a cursory conversation with the pilots? was there any indication of a loss of power or any other performance issue with the airplane that you're aware of? >> there were federal officials, law enforcement officials, that did have initial conversations with the pilot, but the faa and ntsb have not interviewed them yet. we hope to do that in the coming days. we will be looking at the cockpit voice recorder closely and the flight data recorder to see what those parameters might tell us about the last moments and even the minutes and hours before the crash. >> tom had pointed out and we had mentioned that the president of asiana said there was no issue with the engines. do we know if he got that from the pilots in those conversations with other authorities? did they give any indication of the performance of the aircraft? >> you know, i think for us we've got to take a look at the information, the evidence, document all of that before we draw any conclusions. we understand that other people might make statements, but for us we want to make sure that we

verify the facts before we come out with any statements like that. >> should we read anything into the fact that the pilots did not issue any sort of distress call prior to impact? or is this a case that whatever went wrong happened in literally the final few seconds of the flight? >> you know, i think we'll have a better sense of that when we have an opportunity to audition the voice recorder. i know they are on their way to our labs in washington. they were recovered yesterday evening and sent back on a red eye flight under federal escort to washington. when we have an opportunity to rendition that information, we will probably have a better sense of what was going on in those last few minutes and an opportunity to interview the pilot, that will give us information as well. >> my interview with the chairman of ntsb a bit earlier this morning. check some of today's top stories including the investigation into another disaster, a train explosion in canada. j jenna is here with the latest on

that. >> good morning everyone. canadian police say they found two more bodies this morning making it at least three dead now in the massive fires and explosions that ripped apart an entire town center in quebec. ctv is there with the latest. good morning. >> good morning, jenna. the residents of this small center are waking up to the fire still burning in the heart of their historic downtown. many of them are waking up away from their homes. a third of the town has been evacuated. some of them spent the night at this emergency shelter where people have been getting help, they've been getting food and shelter, but also the place where they're leaning on one another sharing the stories of those missing loved ones, the ones they simply have not heard news from. they still don't know what has happened to them. there is an investigation that has been started into just went wrong here and how things changed the life of this town. back to you, jenna. >> thank you very much. new revelations of that alleged u.s. spy in europe are expected from fujive edward snowden.

snowden's new charges will come out reportedly in an interview with a german magazine and detail the nsa's cooperation with german foreign intelligence service. meanwhile snowden has been offered asylum several countries. the firefighters who lost their lives in a wildfire in arizona will be returned to their home today. the supporters express sorrow and gratitude during the town's annual rodeo parade on saturday. nearly 1,300 people were overcome by the extreme heat at a benefit concert in oklahoma. temperatures were in the 90s for a packed show hosted by country music star toby keith. keith's hometown, moore, oklahoma, was devastated by tornado last month. most of the heat victims were treated on the scene. 21 people were taken to hospitals. finally this morning, pamplona,

spain, the running of the crazy humans. the festival kicked off this morning with runners trying to make it without getting bored. the bulls still cannot believe the humans enjoy this tradition. the only rules the participants must be 18, must all run in the same direction and they cannot be under the influence of alcohol. by the way, in case you're wondering, all those same rules apply for the bulls as well. so they're not trying to discriminate with the rule. i wanted to mention that. only two minor injuries this morning to the humans. >> right. >> bulls, different story. >> well, they don't know what's waiting for them. >> we won't tell them. >> thanks. >> dylan's here with the forecast. a wet one in some spots. >> it has been. several inches of rain. we've picked up about 10 to 12 inches of rain in parts of the panhandle of florida. this moisture is streaming in off the gulf of mexico. and the rain has been locked in place from the ohio river valley right down into the gulf coast states. and more rain is likely today.

naturally we have river flood warnings and flood watches, flash flood watches as well. and more rain is likely over the course of the next 24 hours. another one to three inches possible from areas like louisiana and that stretches right up into ohio as well. severe storms stay possible in south dakota and parts of northwestern nebraska right around that cold front. that is something we'll be keeping an eye on. again, the east coast is hot and humid. we're looking at temperatures in the 90s. feels like temperatures up around

>> and that's your latest forecast. erica. >> dylan, thanks. still ahead here on "today." we'll continue the latest on the crash of asiana flight 214 and a closer look at what may have gone wrong. closer look at what may have gone [ male announcer ] a blt is good. a blt with best foods is the best. ♪ ♪ bring out the unmistakable taste that can only be best foods. bring out the best. for aveeno® positively radiant face moisturizer. [ female announcer ] aveeno® with soy helps reduce the look of brown spots in 4 weeks. for healthy radiant skin. aveeno®. naturally beautiful results. [ sound fades ] at a moment like this, i'm glad i use tampax pearl. [ female announcer ] tampax pearl protects better. only tampax has a leakguard braid to help stop leaks before they happen. tampax pearl protects better.

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still still ahead, could the jury get the case this week in the george zimmerman trial. >> and an american woman and her young daughter now stranded in brazil as part of an international custody battle. first these messages. vietnam in 1972. [ all ] fort benning, georgia in 1999.

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good morning to you. looking live at a beautiful picture of the bay bridge this morning. the difficult work of understanding why that asiana air flight crash eed continued today. investigators on the scene will not have to deal with weather as a problem. i'm kris sanchez along with rob. they'll have good working conditions. >> we have low clouds in around the bay. clouds in the morning, over to oakland, 59 degrees. 56 in san francisco. the sea breeze has picked up. southwest at 20 all the way to fairfield, and also a southerly breeze in through san jose. indicating the marine air is into the sacramento valley.

around lunch time, we should get clearing skies inland, but notice, 3:00, 4:00, 5:00, clouds spilling in. plan on the fog coming back in in the evening. lower 80s inland, 60s for san francisco and the coast, head monday into tuesday, we should see a slight warm-up, low 90s. not like the heat we had the week before, and we cool down as we approach wednesday. >> thank you very much. a team from the national transportation safety board arrived in san francisco overnight to begin the formal investigation into the asiana flight 214. this is the first picture from the team, and you can see inside the burned out wreckage. right now, officials are headed to meet with investigators there, and the company's chief executive said the crash was not caused by engine or mechanical problems but the ntsb has not spoken with them directly. this morning, conflicting reports about the two victims in

the crash. the coroner said one victim was 16 years old, the other, an adult. we watched a news conference where the president of asiana airlines said one was born in 1996, the other in 1997. you do the math, then you know both of the victims are teenagers. the coroner said he would perform autopsies in san mateo county later today. >> this morning, two of sfo's four runways remain shut down until the ntsb gives the all clear. that will have a big impact on people trying to get home from the holiday weekend. flight is down because of the high volume of traffic. a total of 242 flights originating at sfo and 186 that were scheduled to land, all cancelled yesterday. travelers are being urged to call their airline before heading to the airport, not to call the airport itself. >> a major fire overnight on the

peninsula. city crews are still working to contain an apartment fire more than four hours after it started. it's happening at the hallmark house on woodside road. the fire marshal at the scene tells our photographer 16 people suffered smoke inhalation, cuts and scrapes while trying to escape the flames. right now, no word on how the fire started, but we know a bus load of evacuees has been taken to a red cross shelter. all the day's news and the latest on the flight crash at sfo coming up at 7:00.

we're back on this sunday morning, july 7th, 2013. you're looking at the wreckage of asiana flight 214. it is just off the runway at san francisco's international airport. it's the first fatal accident involving a major airliner here in the united states in 12 years. i'm lester holt alongside erica hill, jenna wolf and dylan dryer. >> here's the latest about what we know in terms of that crash. investigators from the ntsb have recovered the flight's data recorder and voice recorder, better known as the black boxes. those can be crucial in determining what went wrong. also, we know at least two people were killed in that crash, both of them chinese nationals. two teenage girls. and more than 180 people injured. looking at that wreckage though, so many people this morning just

in awe that it was not worse and that so many were able to walk away. the president of asiana airlines this morning saying they do not believe that engine failure was involved here. >> but we should note the ntsb is just getting to work and they say they haven't determined any of these things yet. we want to go back to john yang at the airport. >> let'ser, good morning. the ntsb is continuing to pore over that burned out fuselage asiana flight 214. as you say, the block boxes have been recovered in flight back to washington right now. they'll be analyzed all trying to figure out just why this plane essentially came in short of the runway, the tail striking the sea wawall at the end of th runway and slamming down on the tarmac, losing landing gear, skidding on the runway leaving a debris trail behind it. we now know this morning the airline says that the two dead teenage girls were members of a

middle school group from china who were here for a summer camp including touring college campuses here in the california area. meanwhile, nearly four dozen people remain hospitalized in hospitals from san francisco down to stanford. five we're told are in critical condition, at least one of them an infant. lester. >> all right. john yang in san francisco for us this morning. thanks, john. >> greg fife is a former nrvegt for the ntsb. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> give us a sense this morning, interesting reports that john touched on. the head of the ntsb telling lester earlier this morning that there are so many things they still need to go through. in terms of putting that information out, what does that tell you? >> well, one, i'm surprised that

the ceo even made those kind of comments. typically that's guarded information. s and for him to make that analysis this early is really quite surprising. but given that information, if in fact that's true where there wasn't an engine problem, because that's been a concern because of the british airways 777 and having an icing issue with the fuel. so that's going to be looked at and scrutinized by the ntsb. if there was no engine problem and it was pure pilot discipline or operational discipline that they're going to be looking at, then there's a big concern as to why this airplane got into a very high sink rate. a lot of witnesses said it hit very hard on the runway. >> there was also a lot of talk people mentioning it felt very low. there's also been talk about the instrument landing guidances that was disabled june 1 st at sfo and there was construction in the area. could either one of those played a role? >> typically pilots in this particular instance with good weather will shoot what they call a visual approach.

they're using visual cues out on the runway to actually control their approach to the runway. however, they use this instrument system as a backup. and so a lot of the pilots will use this three-degree glide slope. because the ils was out of service, it's now all visual. so the pilots, which could be very interesting to know what kind of flight path they were flying, if they were kept high on the approach and then had to make a steep decent to try and get the airplane down. they got into a high sink rate and were unable to stop it before they struck the runway. so that's going to be a critical factor here for the ntsb to look at. >> we know investigators are already on scene looking at a number of these things. as we mentioned, the black boxes were recovered, but those are in the tail. the tail broke off. will that affect the information that they're hoping to gather? >> the big thing is if those boxes, they're probably in good shape, they are on their way to washington. now the critical information is going to be during the course of the readout. a lot of times, and we've had it in the past where we've had good recorders as far as physical

recovery of those boxes, however the data, we've had data drops, electrical problems with the boxes. hopefully they're going to get some good data and that will be pumped back to the investigators on the ground almost immediately so that they can focus their investigative work at sfo based on that information. >> real quickly before we let you go, especially these days we all like information immediately. but give us a sense, how long could both the anllization of those boxes take? >> if there's good data, they'll have very good data this afternoon to at least get them started. the entire analysis process will take probably several days especially the flight data recorder because that's where all the parameters for the aircraft are. and that's how the performance engineers will determine exactly what caused this high rate of decent or this low approach and the aircraft striking the seawall. >> greg, great to have you with us as always. thank you. >> another check for the weather. let's go outside and say good morning to dylan.

>> good morning everyone. i feel you can always find a bag and always find crayons. that's how you can make a sign if you don't have poster board. we are looking at some really warm temperatures in the northeast. it's not just the heat, it's the humidity with this bermuda high just pumping in that southerly wind. it is going to be extremely uncomfortable with your feels like temperature up around 100 degrees in parts of the northeast. because of that we have excessive heat warnings and advisories from philadelphia and new jersey up into new york city. it is going to be about ten degrees above average with temps in the mid-90s. again, it's going to feel like we are closer to 100 degrees because of all that humidity. the rain is still falling from ohio right down into louisiana with some of the heaviest rain falling through

>> and as always, today's top spot is in new orleans at the essence festival with our affiliate. taken over with policymakers, star chefs and live musical performances from the world's top artists. tonight's headliner, beyonce. they'll be broadcasting live from the essence festival all throughout this afternoon. lester. >> dylan, thanks very much. we want to go to florida now and the trial of george zimmerman. the defense has already begun making its case after the prosecution rested on friday leaving a lot of public debate as to if they've proven

reasonable doubt. we go to sanford, florida, ron, good morning. >> lester, good morning to you. as you mentioned, the defense has now got the case. and while a lot of people online and elsewhere think that the defense is winning this case so far, the defense is still planning on putting on a big case for george zimmerman. today could be george zimmerman's last weekend of legal limbo. >> putting on witnesses. >> as his defense team prepares for three or four more days of testimony before his fate is handed to the jury. >> mr. zimmerman, you're appearing here for your first appearance oos -- >> zimmerman pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder saying he shot trayvon martin in self-defense after the teenager attacked him last year. >> gladys zimmerman. >> and as witnesses friendlier to the defense take the stand this week, whether zimmerman does himself becomes a more significant question by the day. >> we're still considering it. >> perhaps even as crucial as a question that may never be answered. >> so you think he's yelling

help? >> yes. >> who's screaming in that 9-1-1 call. >> we still don't know if zimmerman will take the stand. most attorneys think it would be a major blunder if he did take the stand because he would have to answer so many questions on cross-examination about the many inconsistencies throughout his story. >> the state called 38 witnesses trying to portray zimmerman as a rogue neighborhood watch leader who profiled, followed, confronted and ultimately killed martin. >> let me put it this way, there are two people involved here, one of them's dead and one of them's a liar. >> defense attorney mark o'mara attacked the prosecution's theory that zimmerman's conduct meets the standard for a second-degree murder charge saying his client is under a lot of stress. >> when he sees that they present this amount of evidence and as he is some sinister mastermind who would decide to commit a heinous crime and try to figure out how to get away with it, in my opinion got to lead to a lot more stress and anxiety with george.

>> now, at the end of all the testimony, the defense can ask the judge to make a stand your ground ruling for george zimmerman. if she believes his story of self-defense, she can acquit him or deny that motion and allow the jury to handle it. >> thank you very much. up next, stuck in brazil. the fielgt to bring an american woman and their young daughter home after their passports are seized in south america right after these messages. and their after their passports are seized in south america right after these messages. what makes your family smile? backflips and cartwheels. love, warmth. here, try this. mmmm, ok!

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[ male announcer ] your kids make great things. so give them a tasty, wholesome snack that has eight grams of whole grain... and is now made with real strawberries and bananas. honey maid teddy grahams. two new flavors now made with real fruit. a massachusetts mother and her 6-year-old daughter have been stuck in brazil since the end of may, their passports taken from them after they got wrapped up in an international custody dispute. here is michelle franzen. >> reporter: it was suppose d t

be a three-week trip to brazil, a chance american shauna hadden says for her daughter ava to see her brazilian father for the first time in years. seven weeks later in a skype interview, the massachusetts mom says she and her daughter are trapped after the brazilian government seized their passports. >> she really wants to go home every day. she cries because she misses her dog and her family. it's really tough on her, but i think we're hanging in there okay. >> reporter: back in the u.s. family members say hadden has full custody of ava and arranged the visit with the 6-year-old's father because he had been deported from the u.s. >> when she got there in rio she had a phone call and decided not to proceed with the rest of her journey down there because she was afraid. there had been some threats. >> reporter: since then hadden has been trying to return to the u.s. after ava's father reportedly filed for custody in brazil. nbc news reached out for comment to ava's father and the brazilian government, but so far no response. she's launched a trapped in

brazil facebook page and also reached out to david goldman, the new jersey father who battled the brazilian government for years to get his son, shawn, back. >> here is a mom from america who has got sole, physical, legal custody, court papers -- she brought her papers with her. she thought she covered all of her bases in case something like this would happen. >> reporter: meanwhile, u.s. officials are working to bring the mother and daughter home. massachusetts congressman richard neal says hadden and ava should be allowed to return home immediately. the state department says it is monitoring the situation closely and asks the brazilian government to ensure ms. hadden and her daughter are afforded all legal protections entitled to them. for "today," michelle franzen, nbc news, new york. just ahead on "today," royal baby fever. it is in full force both across the pond and, frankly, right here as well as we get closer to duchess kate's due date. the boys used double miles from their capital one venture card

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we're coming close to a due date. >> jenna's? >> not jenna's. we are but the royal due date. >> that other due date. duchess catherine ready to give birth. >> more now from london. >> reporter: no royal patient yet. the world's most anticipated baby isn't believed to be due until next weekend, but the international media is camped out and police stand guard on the same steps where william was presented to the world by his parents 31 years ago. kate hasn't been seen since mid june. she's been stay iing out of the

spotlight for the final days of her pregnancy. william is still at work in wales, 270 miles away, ready to dash to london when kate goes into labor. now the only thing to do is wait. >> it's very exciting and i think everyone is very thrilled for them. >> can't wait. we know it's not far away. >> reporter: an excited prince charles even asked for advice on how to be a good grandparent at the a tea party. in the stores, the merchandise is ready, very cute, pink and blue, girl or boy, no one knows. a bonanza worth millions of dollars for retailers. thousands betting on names. alexandria top of the list. apparently no decision has been made. >> the couple don't really want to get involved with the names until the baby is actually here. that's quite sweet. until you've seen the face of the child, it doesn't suit that name. >> reporter: girl or boy this baby will be crowned. expect huge crowds here when the birth is announced and celebrationses up and down the country and beyond.

even niagara falls visited by william with diana and harry will flow pink or blue to mark the birth. but for william, joy may be mixed with sadness. >> i think for william it will be emotional for him. he has spoken warmly and fondly and emotionally about his mother in the past. i think at this particular moment the culmination of family life and a child born she will certainlily be in his thoughts. >> reporter: as the world waits for diana's grandson or granddaughter to make their entrance on the world stage. nbc news, london. still to come on "today," get ready for a chorus of hallelujahs as we go behind the competition show known as "sunday best." hershey's s'mores.

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gospel music is not just for church anymore. "sunday's best" is b.e.t.'s competition show. contestants learn quickly you need a very powerful voice to move people. >> the show is about to kick off its sixth season and e-news correspondent takes us behind-the-scenes at the auditions even seeing if she has

what it takes to be "sunday best." >> reporter: for hours they gathered by the thousands. at times standing out in the rain hoping for their chance can of stardom. what's inside the church in houston, a joyful noise made by some. ♪ >> reporter: just noise from others. ♪ >> hey, hey, stop, stop. because if you sing some more, we're going to be running. >> reporter: you know all about "american idol," the "x-factor" and "the voice." take those shows, throw on some gospel and you have "sunday best." kirk franklin is the host of "sunday best." how crazy is audition day? you have thousands of people who come out here. >> one thing i love about this show, maybe like other shows, is it's such a culture so while the people are waiting they may

break into a hymn or a choir song. ♪ jesus is mine >> reporter: this woman came back for a second try after being cut during the season four auditions. >> i'm a little nervous and i'm excited. >> reporter: cecilia made it through the first round and so did dareus washington and kimberly britt. ♪ you keep on keeping me >> reporter: but most who arrive with dreams of being named winner of "sunday best" instead got a wake-up call from the show's producers. >> unfortunately, we're not going to be sending anybody from this line through to the next level of "sunday best." thank you so much for coming out. >> going to come with the hard critiq critiques but we're going to do it in love. go back, work on it some more. or maybe this is not meant for you to do. >> reporter: we that earlier. there was feedback.

♪ >> can i start over? >> you don't get to start out. whatever comes out, it is what it is. thank you for trying. >> reporter: do you feel bad about some of those people you know are not quite right but they make air because it is entertaining? >> yes, sometimes i feel bad about that. >> reporter: i might be one of them because i'm auditioning today. like so many others who auditioned, i took a leap of faith, walked out on stage and gave it my "sunday best." ♪ this is my story this is my song ♪ ♪ i'm praising and praising him all the day long ♪ >> i think you're very brave. you're very cute. but not exactly what we're looking for for "sunday best. ". >> you have a good day job. you keep that don't let it go. >> reporter: and with that, the search for america's best gospel singer goes on.

♪ all you've done for me my hat's off to anybody who does these shows. >> i was thinking the same thing. >> it's not easy. >> that is tough to do that audition. >> good luck to her. she did a good job. your wednesday best. "sunday best" kicks off its sixth season tonight on b.e.t. >> we'll check in with david gregory, moderator of "meet the press." you have more coming up with the ntsb chair. plenty of turmoil in egypt. this is a challenge for the obama administration. what's happening behind the scenes there? >> well, there's a fair amount of confidence among u.s. officials that had will turn out well. that may be overly optimistic at the moment. there's so much chaos in egypt. and the real question about not only who is going to be part of the new government but how they're going to govern under these circumstances. the united states government provides a billion and a half dollars of aid which clearly benefits the egyptian military. that's the basis of a very

strong relationship between egypt and the united states. but the administration is again sort of on the sideline figuring out how much leverage it has to use here and what outcome it would like to see. so we'll talk about all of that this morning. >> and what else do you have coming up for us on "meet the press"? >> we're also going to talk about, as you mentioned, the latest on the crash landing in san francisco and some of the political fights back home for the administration on health care and immigration. senator bob maez, congressman raul labrador as well. >> that is going to do it here for us on "today" this sunday morning. thank you for joining us. >> of course you can get the latest on that plane crash in san francisco, on "meet the press" and on nbcnews.com. we'll have complete coverage tonight on nbc n"nbc nightly ne" we expect a lot of updates throughout the day. we'll have it all wrapped up this evening. have a great day.

we're live on the peninsula where investigators have not ruled out anything as to the cause of asiana flight 214. the latest from the ntsb coming up in a live report. >> news 2 breaking news where a massive fire ripped through a three-story apartment complex, bringing down the roof and sending 16 people to the hospital. today in the bay starts right now. and we're looking live at the bay bridge toll plaza. you can see some of the fog that is going to remain for parts of this morning. and what it means for the rest of your day, we'll talk about that, too. i'm chrkris sanchez