on this saturday night, deliberate actions. the new twist tonight, malaysia now says someone diverted the missing plane as the search expands dramatically and investigators search the homes of the pilot and co-pilot. breaking away, on the eve of a key vote in the future of ukraine, we're there as russia tightens its grip and the u.s. issues yet another warning. flood zone, as the records go west, as it all starts to melt with nowhere to go. and power play. the u.s. and russia battle it out again on the ice, this time in the paralympics. who wins the gold?

good evening, the word from malaysia tonight is that whatever happened to malaysia airlines flight 370 was no accident. the country's prime minister publicly confirming today what has been a widely held suspicion that the plane was deliberately flown off course. continuing some six hours after radar contact was lost. so are we looking at a hijacking? suicide or terror mission? officials can't say. and they can see the answers could lie anywhere from the far-flung reaches of the indian ocean to the mountains of central asia and possibly to the doorsteps of the two pilots themselv themselves. it is an aviation mystery with no precedent with the face of 239 people hanging in the balance. once again our team is in place to take us to the latest

developments, kerry sanders has more. >> reporter: well, lester because the malaysian prime minister said it was a deliberate act it now has turned the incident into a criminal investigation. the malaysian prime minister ended the speculation today saying flight 370 airborne for more than seven hours could only have taken the route it did with someone at the controls. >> this movement consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane. >> reporter: the jet's whereabouts remains a mystery, but not for a lack of scientific creativity. to track the plane, officials are now relying heavily on a technology that was never designed to chart a jet's route. on top it an antenna that automatically sends bursts of data, routinely it is mechanical, like how much jet fuel it is burning, engine

performance, but a team of clever technicians realized the ping on the satellite could also reveal how far the plane was from a satellite. like a string connected to a balloon. while the distance is useful it doesn't show exactly where the plane is because it could be anywhere along the arc. the map shared by the malaysian government established a last known point of contact. and from there, the spread, like that string from the balloon is a wide v, flight 370 could have flown directly west, north towar towar towards antarctic a or anywhere in between, while not exact it is enough for the navy's p 8 and p 3 aircraft to search off the coast of myanmar, towards burma. >> if there is anything like a

section of a door or window or anything like that our radar will pick it up. >> reporter: finding the debris will tell a story but it is the flight data recorder that will best provide the clues to explain what happened to flight 370. as far as an airplane vanishing or disappearing, this is probably the most bizarre i've seen in my career. >> reporter: tonight, there are 40 ships, 16 different aircraft from 14 different countries including the united states all working together to find clues. the area they're searching is far larger than the nenlt united states. all right, kerry, thank you and with the declaration that it was a deliberate act the question is now who in the cockpit is calling the shots. in a search for answers, the malaysian authorities is trying to question them. keir simmons has more from kuala lumpur. >> reporter: good evening, lester, a stunning development here, the very job for the pilots whose job is to protect their passengers at all cost,

they're under investigation by police. police were in the home of pilots whose responsibility was to fly flight 370 safely. they left the co-pilots' houses after two hour, apparently with two family members. earlier the same detectors left the pilots' house, and searching their home. the pilot, zaharie shah was in his 50s, he lives in an upscale neighborhood with his family. in his home, he has a flight simulator, the co-pilot, fariq hamid is said to be engaged and a very private, quiet man. >> he is a very nice man, he comes, goes to work, then when he comes back, he says hello, hi, that is all. >> reporter: detectives will have many questions about the men in the cockpit, what motivation might they have for

hijacking their own plane? have either of them been behaving strangely in weeks, and perhaps crucially the investigators will examine the simulator in the pilot's home to see what kind of flights he had been flying out. >> you can potentially go back and look at previously flown routes on a simulator, and in that sense, law enforcement if they found a route similar to the one this plane took that would certainly be critical evidence for the investigation going forward. >> reporter: all the passengers and crew on flight 370 are being investigated as the devastated families wait for news. after today i have high hopes that the government will find the aircraft says a father whose son is on board. one key to discovering where the plane is might be establishing who was flying it. and why. tonight, i have been told that the pilot's flight simulator was taken from his house by detectives.

could it be crucial to this investigator, lester? >> all right, keir simmons, thank you for more on the search and the investigation we're joined by michael lighter, also greg fife, former senior air safety investigator for the ntsb, michael let me begin with you, we just heard the flight simulator for the pilots has been taken into custody, i know you have the people with known links to potential terror groups, here you have two who appear to be upstanding pilots. how do you even start to peel the onion? >> it is very difficult, lester, this investigation has gone down other paths, you start with the usual suspects now. it is what kier talked about. talking to the family and friends, going through computers and seeing if there was any indication on the relationships or the communications which could give a motivation or suggestion that people had been thinking about this before the plane took off.

>> other than knowing it is a deliberate act everything seems to be on the table, so i'll go ahead and ask you, has the u.s. intelligence community ever gained a scenario where a plane is not just hijacked or stolen perhaps to be used for some other nefarious purpose in the future? >> the intelligence community was criticized post-9/11 for failure to use imagination, after that we did all sorts of war gaming for different sorts of act. and i have to admit as bizarre as some of those were we did nothing like this. and in that sense i still do think the idea of this plane being taken and landed for some future act is still a very, very, very unlikely possibility. >> all right, greg fife, let me turn to you. this harass been brilliant technical work to use the pings to determine how far the plane traveled. but have we reached the limits of technology? is there any other technology in the bag of tricks that could pick up any information on the plane? >> i think, lester, what they're

trying to do with the lone piece of equipment, which is to try to pinpoint where the aircraft is, the only other thing we have not heard about is to pinpoint the other countries, if they had spy information or any other aircraft that they would have been using that might pinpoint where this airplane is. so i'm not sure that this is the only tool, but we're running out of tools in the tool box. >> greg fife and michael lighter, thank you gentlemen for being a part of the discussion. and let's turn now to ukraine where people in the crimea region will vote on whether to rejoin russia or break away. whetherre is little doubt on what they intend to do, people protested against russia's actions in crimea. their feelings were echoed in the united nation where the u.s. and 12 other members of the united nations voted to condemn the crimea vote.

it is expected to veto the vote. u.s. ambassador samantha power told nbc news it shows how president putin is isolated. >> our hope is that this vote in showing that the entire world stands with international law, with the ukraine people, with the territorial integrity that somehow it will affect his calculus, if it does not, russia will feel the outcome. >> they made final preparations for tomorrow's vote with the heavy russian military presence in the region. >> reporter: on the eve of the referendum, the russians have locked down crimea. ukraine soldiers are prisoners in their own bases, the russia robbers have a sprawling camp outside, there appear to be elite troops giving little away. ukraine ships are blockaded in their bases, too.

one ukraine commander showed me the fence laid by the russians, along the area, they patrol the bay. what is happening here is part of a pattern that is being repeated right across the crimea. they say they are still taking their orders from kiev and are exercising maximum restraint. it has been a clinical operation. the russians move in first then here at the checkpoint, they include volunteers from serbia and russia, searching for guns and explosives. ukraine activists have been missing, some arrested. and one reporter was abducted by armed men overnight. this was a back drop of sunday's referend referendum. for one party, the donations are for the so-called defense force who guard the polling papers.

this local official told me we are already planning the celebrations. and there seems little reason to doubt his confidence. there are reports tonight of a russian military incursion from crimea into mainland ukraine, that and the russian patrols building up on the eastern border make up for this back drop. and today, a protest in syria quickly descending into the civil war taking a staggering toll, killing more than 140,000 people and driving many from their homes. nbc's bill neely has been in damascus for us and has a report on a war with no end in sight. >> reporter: when it started with street protests no one believed it would come to this. the deadliest war in the world, no middle east conflict has come close to matching the mass

killings. city bombarded, civilians besieged and starved. chemical weapons unleashed. the bomb invented, crude, brutal like this war. the suffering here is deep. for the first time in months gas has arrived in a suburb of homs. >> you only have to look at the desperation on their faces. the women tell me all their men are either dead or missing. the regime here vows to finish off the rebels. we're ready to go in and clean up, he says, soon. his master, president assad, rallied his people this week but there is a military stalemate. the war here is now entering its fourth year and there are almost no signs of hope.

this front line has not moved in two years. the killing across syria is getting worse. and diplomacy is getting nowhere. that frustrates a former u.s. national security adviser who was in homs with the u.n. and said many more than 10,000 children have been killed. >> the death toll in this conflict is the highest recorded in any conflict in this region. the wounds of this war are growing faster than our capacity to deal with it. >> reporter: as their fathers fight a new generation is learning lessons. boys play at war everywhere, here, they live it. and they will go on living it in syria for a fourth year. and some of those children have now lived half their lives amid war. you know, the desperately frustrating thing is that no one, not diplomats, not world leaders, not people here can see any obvious way for this war to end.

lester? >> all right, bill neely, thank you, when nightly news continues on this saturday we'll take you where the flooding from all that snow has already hit some communities hard, with sadly much more to come. and later, a frontier, the famous ♪

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after 450 people were stranded in their homes. >> it is very frustrating for people on the other side. and they can see things going on, they want it to happen faster, and we're going as fast as we can. >> reporter: the flood waters took out two dykes, including the one i'm standing on. the race is on to fix it quickly in case the river rises again, while the river is receding it could easily swell again as the snowpack melts, others close their doors to customers. >> it is frustrating because we really haven't finished dealing with 2011. >> reporter: that year, a massive flood put busy bee out of business for 20 months and destroyed several homes. then in 2012, a wildfire ate four more homes. just in one year, the county lost 60% of its housing.

>> losing due to flood or fire. >> reporter: with this latest scene coming into spring, shops weigh the risks of reopening. >> the town loving my coffee, what do you do? hurry up and get back. >> reporter: many seek answers from jeff gates. >> if it were me i would open back up. but have everything on wheels just in case. >> reporter: a new reality for a battered town that is begging for a break, joe fryer, nbc battered town that is begging for a break, joe fryer, nbc news, roundup, your hepatitis c.forget it's slow moving, you tell yourself. i have time. after all there may be no symptoms for years. no wonder you try to push it to the back of your mind and forget it. but here's something you shouldn't forget. hepatitis c is a serious disease.

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and beyond. >> reporter: in a san antonio theater today it was not a hot new movie on the big screen, it was team usa taking on russia in paralympic sled hockey, thousands of miles away in sochi, russia, fans hope for a repeat of the 1980 miracle on ice, they quickly learned what so many learned this year, the paralympics are full of miracles. it is the biggest paralympics to date and will just get bigger. athletes like evan strong who won gold in the paralympic's first ever snow-cross. >> i'm so proud, i'm speechless. >> reporter: joined by his teammates, and american sweet. >> after i lost my leg, it changed everything for me, made me whole again. >> reporter: their stories are pure inspiration, like this josh sweeney, who lost his leg in afghanistan. and tatiana mcfadden, wheelchair

turned skier. >> i think it is one of the best experiences i have ever had. >> reporter: tickets for the game topped 316,000, almost four times the amount last time in vancouver. these games are the most popular ever. >> witnessing them come down the mountain with prosthetic legs, you can't help get caught up. >> reporter: today, fans watched team usa win gold, a new moment of national pride. one that athletes hope all the new fans can learn from. >> it really is about overcoming whatever it is on a daily basis. >> reporter: and that is pure gold. kristen dahlgren, nbc news new york. we received late world this evening that david brenner has died. the stand-up comedian was best known for his regular appearances on "the tonight show" with johnny carson, on the show 108 times, a most frequent

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probably only a matter of time before a computer was enlisted to come up with new food combinations to expand our culinary horizons, for generations it was people like julia child who led the way, now it is watson. nbc's katy tur has more. >> reporter: on this friday afternoon, people are lining up for plates of fish and chips. but this is not your traditional comfort food and this is no ordinary food truck. that is because working alongside the chefs in the institute of culinary education is watson. you may remember watson, ibm's famous computer program as the jeopardy champion that squashed the games top show players back in 2011. while engineers have tweaked the program to not only recall data, they tweaked it to think

creatively. it learned the flavor profiles and chemical compounds that taste good in order to generate new existences never attempted before. >> this is stringing together five or six ingredients at a time that are all matched based on the flavor compounds that they share. that is something way beyond my ability as a chef. >> reporter: and the results have been both described as strange and wonderful. there is the b oelgian bacon pudding with figs, the austrian chocolate burrito, and the vietnamese apple kabob, with curry, strawberry, and sh yitak mushrooms. >> the system allows us to virtually taste them first. >> reporter: sorting through big data for new ideas. it is the prospect that captured the imagination of folks at ibm. >> so this is really what we think of as the future of computing. it will transform industries. >> reporter: now all they have

to do is figure out how watson can make its cake and eat it, too. katy tur. that is nbc this saturday, i'm lester holt reporting from new york, i'll see you tomorrow morning on "today" and right back here tomorrow evening. sierra lamar, despite an arrest in the case, her mother said why she still has hope. soul searching for republican leaders in the bay

area. the battle continues with the tea party. plus, feels like summer, doesn't it? we'll show you the forecast for the rest of the weekend. good evening. i'm diane dwyer. terry is off tonight. in case you didn't get a chance to get out today, it was unusually warm and sunny all around the bay area. here is a live look at san jose and san francisco right now. it looks and feels more like summer than winter, doesn't it? even in downtown san jose, children use the fountains at the caesar chavez plaza to cool off. this is typically a scene in july, not in march. let's check in with rob mayeda for more. >> nice day. san jose close to 80 degrees a bit earlier. 79 both san jose and morgan hill. san francisco, of course, and dublin had the st. patrick's day parades. you can see close to