on our broadcast tonight, is it the plane? two large objects spotted from the air and now the race is on to get there and confirm it in open ocean waters that have been called the most isolated part of the world. hidden evidence, the clock is also ticking in the effort to find the black boxes before time runs out. the information they contain could explain this mystery. in retaliation, president obama unleashes new sanctions on russia and vladimir putin answers right back. and a major breach of security at what should be one of the safest structures in our country. "nightly news" begins now.

good evening, it is the first glimmer at something real, satellite photos of what could appear to be pictures of the aircraft, found in open ocean far from the western coast of australia, in what is called the most isolated part of the world. while military assets and detection aircraft rushes to this scene, if it turns out to be the wreckage, what does it mean about the flight? does it mean sabotage, does it mean all on board lost consciousness somehow, and the aircraft with the crew somehow flew on until it was out of jet fuel. if it is determined to be the wreckage, the long recovery is just starting to get under way, and the body could be upwards of three miles deep. we begin with tom costello in our d.c. newsroom. tom, good evening. >> reporter: hi, brian, they're guardedly hopeful this could be the wreckage from flight 370, four aircraft are working this zone today in which they think

the debris spotted in the satellite photos may be floating. it takes three to four hours to get there which leaves only two hours or so to actually search before they turn back, but a cargo is in the area with all hands forward to watch for debris. in the waters southwest of australia, a p-3 sub hunter looking for any signs of flight 370. those satellite photographs taken four days ago offering what may be the first real clues into the plane's final location. two pieces of debris 14 miles apart, one piece 79 feet long, the other, 16 feet long. >> the task of locating these objects could be extremely difficult and it may turn out they're not related to the search for flight mh-370. >> reporter: the spotted debris is literally in the middle of nowhere, in a place previously identified as an area of interest by the ntsb, close to the intersection of the plane's fuel limit and flight 370's

potential path, determined by the six satellite pings, 1,500 miles from perth, australia. malaysian authorities are optimistic they got their first lead in what they're calling a criminal investigation. >> every lead is a hope, and we are very consistent, we want to verify, we want to corroborate. >> reporter: searching the area, an advanced american hunter, and c-130 dropping marker buoys, and the australian naval ship "success" heading that way. it is a tough go, the waters in the indian ocean are among the roughest in the world, nine foot swells, high winds, and poor visibility. but nbc's al roker says it should improve soon. >> the good news for searchers, is that one area of high pressure will drift right on top of that possible area of wreckage friday morning and kind of stretch out. so that will mean calmer winds, clear skies. >> reporter: if those two pieces

of debris are from the missing plane experts caution they could have already drifted a great distance. >> we don't know where they came from. we don't know if they're part of the aircraft and in fact that aircraft could still be a thousand miles or so from those two pieces of floating debris. >> reporter: if the wreckage is nearby it could be sitting in very deep water, 10,000 to 16,000 feet, two to three miles down. tonight, around the world the families of the missing are still watching and waiting. >> we're not going to believe anything until we get it from an official. and so we're hopeful. >> reporter: also tonight, the fbi now has exact mirror image copies of the computer hard drives taken from the homes of the captain and first officer. that of course, for full forensic analysis, brian? >> tom costello starting us off again from washington, tom, thank you, as we saw the search fully under way on the other side of the world where it is first light. and we're first joined by rebecca o'donovan, who is in

perth australia, at pearce air force base. where the search flights originate. rebecca, good morning to you, and i imagine the tempo of flights is now picking up? >> reporter: that is right, brian, this is where five aircraft are based. and despite bad weather that has just hit the area this morning, the first search plane left just a short time ago and a second one is due to leave in about two hours from now. from here it is a full hour journey to the search going from two and a half thousand kilometers away from perth, the southwest, from there, due to the fuel capacity they only have a window of two hours to search before they have to make the journey back, yesterday the problem was poor visibility with thick cloud cover, fog and rain and high swells that were making it difficult to see any debris. brian? >> rebecca o'donovan, in what is about to become a very busy air force base. thank you, rebecca.

if these satellite images prove to be parts of the aircraft it only increases the urgency now to locate the black boxes before their emergency beacons battery powered, goes silent, making it that much harder to find them and unlock the mystery of what really happened on board the aircraft. we get help from our nbc news aviation correspondent robert hager back with us to help cover the investigation. >> reporter: black boxes have been crucial in solving many crashes, such as the loss of an air france plane off brazil five years ago. it took two years to find the boxes, two and a half miles deep. they revealed pilot error as a factor in the crash. the black boxes are actually bright orange to make them easier to spot, located in the plane's tail and can only be disabled by pulling fuse-like circuit breakers in the cockpit. there are two, the flight data recorder logs about 25 hours of information, hundreds of details about the flight including time of day, directions and turns, air speed, if the plane is nose down or nose up.

the cockpit voice recorder captures private conversations, for microphones on the pilot and co-pilot as well as a third mike that picks up sounds of anything unusual in the cockpit. noise of a struggle, an intruder or how the engines are running, and possibly even the sounds of the black boxes being disabled. that recording is on a two-hour loop so the fear is if it ran longer it could erase crucial conversations early in the flight when the plane first veered off course. the boxes emit an ultra sonic pulse or pinging sound once every 30 seconds, maybe longer. the pulse is picked up by sonar or other listening devices on ships passing by, as far away as five to ten miles, about in this case the batteries on the black boxes could run out in 18 days or longer so time is critical. >> it is absolutely essential we find the flight recorders for the information they're going to have on them is probably the

only way that we're ultimately going to be able to really solve this mystery. >> reporter: while the black boxes or the investigation into the background of the pilots, those are the two avenues to go down and it is going to be difficult, until either one or the other pans out to investigate, brian? >> bob, we're glad to have you back with us, this incredible story and mystery. we should mention our coverage continues 24/7 on the web. at nbcnews.com. from overseas tonight, breaking news out of afghanistan, there was a deadly attack on a hotel, the serena hotel out of kabul, heavily secured, frequented by many westerners, many of us have stayed there many times while covering the war over the years because it is so heavily defended and considered safe. we're told tonight at least nine people are dead, women and children among them. it comes as the taliban ramps up the violence ahead of upcoming elections there. u.s. defense officials are keeping a very close watch on eastern ukraine tonight as thousands of russian troops gather on the border. to quote one defense official,

it is like they're on a hair trigger. we get more tonight from our chief foreign affairs correspondent, andrea mitchell. >> reporter: pro-russian forces today seizing ukrainian ships in the crimean port. shots fired but no injuries as the russians raised their flags. while 20,000 russian troops and attack helicopters marched across the border. ukraine's forces heavily outnumbered, prepared for the worst. barack obama responded today with tougher sanctions, this time against vladimir putin's banker, his childhood friend and judo partner, and the oligarch. known as the croney. >> the world is watching with great concern as russia positions its military in a way that could lead to further incursions into southern and eastern ukraine. >> reporter: putin chastised, by the u.n. secretary general, for grabbing crimea, immediately fired back slapping sanctions on among others, john boehner, harry reid, top white house aides. and john mccain who tweeted, i

guess this means my spring break in siberia is off. a secret bank account in moscow is frozen. could the tense standoff damage critical elements in russia, negotiations on iran's nuclear program, syria, the partnership in space, only last week, the astro not hitchhiked a ride back from the russian space station. the u.s. no longer has its own shuttles. but should we now worry about a new cold war? >> i think it is way early to start to talk about the cold war, let's remember what the cold war was, this is something that lasted for generations. it had to do with nuclear weapons on a hair trigger. >> reporter: putin could still up the ante. >> the greatest fear that people are sensing is that putin will go farther and use the pretext of going into the baltic states or eastern ukraine, and that this could get really nasty

really quickly. >> reporter: for now it is an economic tit for tat with nobody knowing if russia will carry out threats to do more. brian? >> andrea mitchell in our d.c. news room. thank you. back in this country, some hard evidence of a hard-hit drought in the west. tonight, new stats show it now covers a staggering 99.8% of the state of california. this of course raises even more concerns about the threat of wildfires as temperatures now begin to climb in the months ahead. even though another storm is on the way next week winter is now officially over. but long after the snow melts, many people across this country will be paying the price for it. we get more tonight from nbc's kevin tibbles. on the road in the midwest. >> reporter: long, cold and costly, the winter of 2014 broke records and budgets. call it frozenomics, a $55 billion hit to the economy. we decided to hit the road to see just how tough and costly

this winter has been. a christmas ice storm devastated east lansing, michigan, and sent a massive tree crashing on to chad's house. repairs? $30,000. >> it will be over three or four months before we get back on track. >> reporter: and that all takes a toll on his young family. what has been the hardest part for you? >> not having any floors with a toddler who wants to put her face on everything. >> reporter: $5.5 billion in damage alone to homes, businesses, agriculture and infrastructure. and cities will battle the scourge of potholes for months, more than 30,000 alone in toledo, ohio, no wonder they're calling it holy toledo. >> we have a plethora of potholes. >> reporter: manndy ger kin's family has been making asphalt for four generations. >> we've never been open this early before. >> reporter: in chicago it snowed again today. after nearly 80 inches of snow

this winter in chicago and 23 days below zero, locals feel like they've been digging out forever. >> i think it will stay winter at least for another month. that is what it feels like today. >> reporter: but just to make sure the boys of summer won't have to wait, industrial-sized hair dryers at white sox park. no matter how cold it is, hope like a baseball fan springs eternal. kevin tibbles, nbc news, toledo. and still ahead for us, a stunning breach raising serious questions about what was billed as the safest commercial structure on this planet.

there has been a security breach here in new york that has made headlines around the world and has raised a lot of questions because it happened inside the structure we would have reason to believe would be among the most secure in the entire country, the new world trade center. we get our report tonight from nbc's anne thompson.

>> reporter: one world trade center is billed as the most safe structure in the world, but what this new jersey teenager did shows it is far from secure. 16-year-old justin casquejo offered no details today of his adventure to the top of the tallest building early sunday morning. just before 1:00 a.m., he tweeted, a long way from home. casquejo tweeted his location from the construction site. despite all the security cameras, port authority said the teen snuck through a one-foot wide hole in the fence used to move building materials, he scaled a scaffold to the sixth floor, walked up the stair case to the 104th. there he got by a security guard that the port authority described as inattentive and climbed a ladder. the incident ended at 6:00 a.m., when he was taken in the lobby, the security guard was fired. >> obviously it is shocking and

troubling, i don't know how possibly it could have happened. >> reporter: how big a security breach is this? >> well, it is a very large breach. it actually indicates they have no security if a 16-year-old kid can get to the top of the building. >> reporter: a breach reminding new yorkers of the day they can't forget. >> i've had family and friends that were lost in 9/11. and you know, it is a big concern for a lot of people down here. >> reporter: patrick flores who has known casquejo since sixth grade, says he is an adrenalin junky. >> i was walking and saw him hanging out of the third floor window waving at everyone. >> reporter: he faces a misdemeanor for criminal trespass that could send him to jail for 90 days while the port authority and the security firm conduct a top-to-bottom review at one of the nation's most iconic sites. anne thompson, nbc news new york. and we'll be right back in a moment with a comeback for a different american icon.

robert strauss has died and

with his death has come the end of an era, he was a power broker who did deals and kept secrets and walked freely back and forth between political parties, between government and business, while playing by a set of rules that are now long gone. he was a texan, a lawyer, a democrat, a talker and a quote machine for reporters. he was chairman of the democratic party closely aligned with jimmy carter who he helped elect, but when carter lost he quickly became a confidant of ronald reagan, he volunteered, for lbj as a young man and later served in the fbi. while he never achieved his mother's goal for him of becoming the first jewish governor of texas, he did serve as an ambassador and middle east negotiator, he was 95 years old. and shocking number out today from a group of economists from princeton, about the long-term unemployed and doesn't offer much hope in this economy. in fact it paints a very bleak picture, they estimate people out of work for six months or

more only 11% on average will ever again find steady full-time work. it says the unemployed are twice as likely to stop looking for jobs than to find one, the numbers show that the long-term unemployed simply reach retirement age. others are getting by on side jobs and with help from relatives and friends. and if you're taking a trip to d.c. this summer it looks like you will see the washington monument back to normal. it has been shrouded in scaffolding for repairs since 2011. but the work has gone by quickly thanks so washington businessman david rubenstein. who paid half the cost. it was the tallest building in the world surpassed by the eiffel tower. he is an icon of the civil rights movement, long-time member of congress from georgia. and in a new video on the web, democratic congressman john lewis appears to be happy while dancing to the song with the same name. a call to his office in washington reveals he was

celebrating national happiness day because, they say, he is an optimistic hopeful person he also does not stop dancing. and it is a video you can see on our website tonight. when we come back here this evening what is drawing folks from all across the country to witness a spectacular force of nature this time of year.

as we leave you tonight, and in consideration of the news we have been covering here at quite a pace night after night we thought it might be a nice time to visit a peaceful place and show you a story about a stunning rite of spring on this first day of spring. our report tonight from nbc's harry smith. >> reporter: interstate 80. if you're on it, you race through places like nebraska, but this time of year it is hard not to notice the birds here, yes, those are birds in the sky, thousands and thousands of snow geese, migrating northward, slowing down for a rest. talk about a roadside attraction. 20 million or so birds would be offended to hear nebraska referred to as a fly-over state. the birds and their ancestors have spent every spring here for several thousand millennium,

these are sand hill cranes. mike forsberg, a photographer, author and conservationist, has been watching the cranes for 20 years. >> it would be like missing christmas if i didn't come to the platte river in central nebraska to watch cranes in the springtime. >> this is good. this is really good. >> reporter: revered since ancient times, mike says the graceful, el gantd birds dance sometimes because they're nervous, sometimes they're in love, and sometimes because they just like to dance. but the best time to watch them is at first light. with the golden moon in the western sky you can barely see the birds, but you sure can hear them. the cranes spend the night on the banks in the sand bars of the platte river and as daybreak comes the birds get louder and

louder builder to a dramatic crescendo, the wake-up call the likes of which you have never heard. crane-lovers come from all over the country and all over the world to visit audubon's row sanctuary, lin can't wait to hear the birds up close. you're all pumped up. >> i really am, i can't help it. >> reporter: we used to say we know it is spring when the swallows return to capistrano. now you know it is spring when the cranes return to carney, harry smith, nbc news, carney, nebraska. >> and that is our broadcast for this thursday night, thank you for joining us, i'm brian williams, of course we hope to see you back here tomorrow evening. good night.

nbc bay area news begins with breaking news. and that breaking news comes out of the east bay where firefighters are still try oing to get a handle on a brush fire. this is in pittsburg. right now you're looking at a live picture from our copter. >> the smoke can be seen for miles. it's burning extremely close to a power plant. now the spokesman tells us that while the plant is operational, it was not active when this fire began. the power lines which you can

see perilously close to the flames, if those lines fall, it could cause additional fires. they are working to deenergize those power lines. but right now all pg&e customers still have their power on. this is near the willow pass road right off of highway 4. and drivers are being asked to avoid the area. with us on the phone is george langenbrunne lang. what's the primary concern? >> caller: right now the concern is that we put out the hotspots. we're concerned that we have this kind of fire action this early. there are high-tension power lines in the area, b