pretty incredible. nbc nightly news is next. more local news at 6:00. good night. disaster at sea. new arrests tonight as the captain tries to explain what went so terribly wrong as the desperate search goes on. avalanche, dramatic new images of the worst accident ever on mount everest and why climbing the highest mountain in the world has become so much more risky. danger zone, without warning a slow-movg mudslide suddenly picks up speed splitting a house in two and has a town on edge tonight, and spy games, a far more sinister side of study abroad as foreign governments try to recruit students for espionage. how the u.s. is fighting back.

from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. good evening. the captain of that ill-faded south korean ferry who abandoned his sinking ship while more than 300 others, mostly school children is under arrest with two crew members suspected of negligence in the deadly disaster. today for the first time, divers searching the mirky waters broke through windows to recover a few of the victims inside while holding out slim hope they may yet find survivors. at least 36 people are listed as dead. for the families waiting for word of the loved ones, the pain and grief is overwhelming, and so too is the anger, even as the ship's captain tries to explain why he delayed the order to abandon ship. bill neely is in south korea and has the latest, bill? >> reporter: good evening, lester. a fifth day of searching has

begun here but one korean official says the operation to recover bodies in the ship here could take months. the relatives here are under immense strain. the captain is under arrest and under fire. he lost his ship. now he's lost his freedom. this 69-year-old captain under arrest and charged with criminal negligence admitting he had deliberately delayed an evacuation. >> translator: i was afraid the passengers would drift away in the water he said. he admitted he was in his cabin when the accident happened. with him and also charged, two other crew including the sobbing 26-year-old female officer who had been steering the ship. this was the captain arriving on shore with the first group of survivors. he left behind nearly 300 people trapped. his life raft unused. even his helmsmen now charged and being treated in the

hospital was shocked the captain had fled. the families of the children he left behind on the ship are furious. >> translator: our children are still there says this parent and we're dying on shore. >> reporter: they wait in a gym of mourning. hundreds exhausted by grief but refusing to let go, but as the uncle of one missing child spoke to me, news came through more bodies had been found. we're hearing someone screaming right now in the background. this must be so difficult. >> so difficult. i don't want to give up. really, i don't want to give up. >> reporter: the waiting is torture. some parents have given dna samples so these can be checked against children recovered from the sea. they watched video of the under water search of the ship but saw little through the mirky water. divers are still trying to retrieve bodies, but currents are strong as a water fall push them back.

rescuers work day and night, flares lighting the sky where the ship lies watched by desperate families on land. three more bodies have just been brought ashore now. there were cries from parents who simply don't know whose children these are. four days on and still only one in ten of the missing children have been found and brought here. and so they wait powerless, clinging to glimmers of hope amid the darkness. and as you say, lester, the confirmed death toll is now 36. that still leaves, 265, most of them children, missing and officials say it's now highly unlikely even if they were in an air pocket in that ship that any of those children would still be alive, lester. >> bill neely tonight for us, thank you. for more on the questions this disaster raises about passenger

safety, we're joined by associate professor of navigation at suni maritime college here in new york. i want to start by asking, we understand the children, passengers were told to stay in their cabins at the beginning of this emergency. is that in any way typical of what a crew would ask for in an emergency like this? >> it isn't. one of the usual things that will happen is there is any emergency that takes place on board the vessel, the first thing to happen the alarm is sounded. every person on board that vessel and any commercial vessel has a very specific location they have to go from the cook right up to the captain. so the alarm should have been sounded. the passengers should have been mustered to the evacuation point. the captain was very concerned about them going into the water, the cold water but the captain didn't necessarily have to have them evacuate the vessel at the time but at least they should have been moved to their

evacuation stations so the life rafts could have gotten ready and made a decision after that at some point. >> is the crew typically allowed to make unilateral action? if they don't hear from the captain and they see things going south, can they make the call personally to get people on boats and off? >> that's going to depend on the circumstances. there is a system of communication that takes place on board the vessel. the most common system is the public address system. if they have a loss of power at some point and can't use the public address system, then the individual officers and crew responsible for those life raft decisions, if they don't have walkie talkie communication or other communication, then they are responsible for making that decision at that point. i don't see where we're talking about where any of the other crew members were at the time of this emergency. >> it's an interesting question and i've got to ask recognizing these were mostly children passengers on board, but you hear about these things overseas and confusing situations. what should you as a passenger

do in a case like this? you feel the boat listing and not comfortable with the instruction, how much action should you take on your own? >> at the very least a passenger that is not comfortable should go to the evacuation station. matter of fact, that's one of the things you rehearse on board any cruise, at any point you know they always show you where your evacuation station is, and you should really memorize that. for example, when you walk out your cabin door, you should be able to turn to the left and know how to get to your evacuation station and turn to the right and know how to get to your evacuation station. >> importnant information. appreciate you being on with us. >> thank you. we received incredible images of the moment an avalanche of ice claimed the lives of 13 and left three others missing on mount everest and we're learning about the community duncan has the latest. >> reporter: new images of the moment an avalanche tore down an

everest pass sweeping down the men that know it best. they are sherpas. local guides. their families spent the day waited for the bodies of their loved ones to be returned. they came out one by one covered with scarves. >> a huge amount of guilt that they were carrying equipment for us and preparing for us. >> reporter: there are a series of camps off mount everest. the avalanche happened in the base and mount one, it's the first major hurdle on the mountain. this is where they were climbing friday morning under vast walls of ice that suddenly came loose. >> i've been on that mountain many times and gone through the ice fall and the sherpa usually leave very early from base camp and carrying loads of equipment from camp one and tend to like to climb close together. you know, they are friends, they work together. they know each other. >> reporter: climbers rush to help bringing the injured down. an nbc news crew was there

preparing for a documentary for the discovery channel. all nbc employees are safe. at least 80 have died since it was first scaled. this girl's father is added to the list. she speaks of her sorrow and says simply i'm so very sad. this morning rescuers brought down the latest body as climbers came out to pay respects. the mountain is now closed for four days. some climbers say they will continue with the expedition and others decided this is a wakeup call for the dangers of the mountain that claimed to many of the lives of those who try to scale it. tonight, there is a growing threat here at home. a landslide in the west is threatening one wyoming resort town. here is nbc's joe fryer. >> reporter: it's a hazard moving in slow motion, a landslide now starting to pick up speed ripping a vacant home in half.

>> my buddy is like dude, we're watching that house break apart right now, get down here. >> reporter: for two weeks the resort town of jackson, wyoming kept on eye on this fractured hillside. the earth is buckling beneath the parking lot of a new drugstore as more rocks and gravel tumble down the slope with geologists warning the chucks could get bigger. that increased danger forced crews to abandon efforts to stabilize the hill. several homes reman evacuated with no end in sight. >> this is a big deal for the town. >> reporter: across the country, the u.s. gee log kill survey say s there are hundreds and thousands of mudslides and landslides every year. >> almost every citizen in the united states could potentially experience a landslide. >> reporter: just on friday a landslide near oakland took out several trees knocking out power to hundreds. last month a mudslide near oso, washington. on average landslides kill 25 to

50 people per year and cause $1 billion in damage. they are caused by a variety of factors including river erosion, heavy rains and snow melt, earthquakes and land development. landslides are especially common on hills with steep slopes and a history of slides. >> like many other natural hazards, they actually do endanger people's lives occasionally and we need to sit up and pay attention. >> reporter: it's still unclear what is behind this slow mover in wyoming where the threat only continues to grow. joe fryer, nbc news, los angeles. >> we turn to the mystery of flight 370. more than six weeks since the jetliner disappeared over the indian ocean, the robotic submarine has now made seven trips where it's thought to have gone down. katy tur is following the search effort. katy? >> reporter: hey, there, lester. it's on the seventh dive right now. it should be wrapping up soon.

six completed so far, 51 square miles covered by blue fin 21 and as of now, nothing in the note of data. no wreckage spotted. officials say they are still hopeful that they are searching in the right area. that being said, the next five to seven days they could discontinue the underwater search because for the next week they will be intensely focussing on an area that they have further refined the four acoustic signals that ocean shield detected last week. it's the area they have the best hope for. if nothing is found in the next week, they will have to go back to the drawing board, reassess. they might continue to search under water with blue fin 21 in a brighter area. they may move on to options unclear now. this week is really now or never. >> katy tur, thank you. >> there is a truce in effect tonight in ukraine this easier holiday no sign forces in the eastern part of the country will back down.

they exert more and more control. at the same time there is indications the u.s. is planning a show of force of its own in neighboring countries. we get the latest tonight from nbc's kristen welker at the white house, good evening. >> reporter: despite an international agreement to deescalate the crisis in ukraine, prorussian militants are vowing to continue their occupation of government buildings in eastern ukraine, violating the deal, which was reached in geneva three days ago. in an exclusive interview with david gregory, ukraine's prime minister warned moscow has bigger plans. >> president putin has a dream to restore the soviet union, and every day he goes further and further and god knows where is the final destination. >> reporter: armed prorussian

militants have seized buildings in at least ten towns, and say they won't leave unless ukraine's interim government relinquishes power. >> reporter: there is a low here due partly to the easter holiday and a three-day truce called today by the kiev government. while, tonight, a top official arrives here to begin monitoring compliance of the geneva deal as prorussian militants say no deal. >> reporter: meanwhile the pentagon says the united states is considering a range of additional measures to bolster air, maritime and ground readiness in europe. a move reassuring nato allies in the region. while vladimir putin today attended eastern midnight mass outside moscow, 40,000 russian troops continued their encampment along the boarder with ukraine, they are including special operations forces, airborne paratroopers and combat forces. foreign policy experts say the best chance of success to end the insurgency to pressure the

militants to back down. >> the key to get the groups to abandon these police stations is vladimir putin. if he calls to do it publicly or privately, it will happen and he's the only person to reign them in. >> reporter: president putin insists deescalation doesn't depend solely on russia. in the meantime, poland's defense minister said the united states is considering a plan to send a small number of ground troops to poland. president obama has said the united states will not engage with russia military. lester? >> and kristen, what about the likelihood of more sanctions? >> reporter: the obama administration says if russia does not compile with the geneva pact, it lb ready to enforce stiffer sanctions. so far sanctions are targeted as a new round that could target the various sectors of russia's economy. those sectors would include banking, mining and energy. the u.s. says they are only giving russia a few days to follow through, lester.

>> thank you. tomorrow on "meet the press" david gregory will have much more as this crisis unfolds. >> people with accounts on healthcare.gov are being told to change their passwords. there is no indication the website has been compromised and that action is being taken out of an abundance of caution. when "nbc nightly news" continues on this saturday. americans studying abroad, how the fbi is trying to prevent them from being recruited as spies.

we're back with the intriguing new way the fbi is combatting espionage overseas. this includes students being recruited as spies. more on the stuff movies are made of. >> reporter: it's the fbi's latest tool in the effort to crackdown on spying. not a hollywood thriller featuring jason born. >> and to win the game, you must often sacrifice. >> reporter: but a highly produce half-hour video released this week reenacting the video

a former college student from michigan. he was sentenced to four years in federal prison for trying to give information to chinese officials while studying abroad. >> i wrote a number of papers and each time amanda paid me in cash. >> reporter: $70,000 later they encouraged him to work at the cia. the real life shooif er offers this caution. >> don't fool yourself. the recruitment is active and the target is young people, throw out money at them, see what happens. >> reporter: more than 280,000 american students study abroad each year. the fbi warns they are tempting for spy agencies. the chinese government targets dozens of american students each year, slowly luring them in with cash and gifts. >> eventually they got you over a bell because you've been strung along little by little. at that point, they have much more severe demands on you. >> reporter: the hook is in. >> the hook is in. >> reporter: why college students? today's college student is

tomorrow's government official. foreign spy agencies hope their investment will pay off years down the road. >> our economies are intertwined. all we seek is information to improve relations between us. >> reporter: the burro won't say how much the video cost to produce, but one former intelligence official insists it's far cheaper than the consequences of that one naive student that takes the bait. peter alexander, nbc news washington. and just who can climb aboard a jet fighter in high heels? the answer when we come back.

>> after a long delay, we finally have liftoff. this was the sight as the space supply ship blasted off for the international space station yesterday. the unmanned rocket is carrying two tons of supplies and equipment. it's expected to make the delivery tomorrow morning setting the stage for emergency spacewalk repairs later in the week. there was this from australia today, prince william taking a backseat as the duchess of cambridge stepped behind the fighter jet during a visit to the air force base. despite wearing high heels and dress, kate managed it with usual grace. up next, boston strong, out in force as they get ready for this year's marathon.

in boston today, final preparations are underway for monday's marathon. the mood is festive as the city forges ahead in the wake of last's bombings. nbc's ron mott is at boston common tonight, ron? >> reporter: good evening. a big day coming up on monday and the history of the great race, the 118th running of the boston marathon and probably safe to say the biggest ever. this will be packed. 36,000 runners are registered.

this 26.2 mile course is expected to attract a million people or more and the race will end on boylston street. today was the day for the casual runner, if you will, they ran a 5k race today and a lot of people turned out, 10,000, the most ever for that event including a group of young and older runners for a team called mr 8 honoring martin richard, one of three people killed here last year and a tribute walk that brought out survivors of last year's attack and joined by a group of veterans, including wounded warriors. everybody is talking about security commae monday. security will be tight. they are asking all spectators to leave large items in your car or at home. they will be subject to search. boston police are expected to remove trash cans, mailboxes and more to prevent the tragedy that happened last year. lester? >> thank you. that's "nbc nightly news" for this saturday.

i'm lester holt reporting from new york. i'll see you tomorrow morning on "today" and back here tomorrow evening. have a good night, everyone. nbc bay area begins with breaking news. >> i'm diane dwyer. terry mcsweeney is off tonight. we are following a breaking story. crews searching for a missing man say they have found a body in the water. officials say a boat crashed into the bridge near the cruiser

haven marina at around 11:00 this morning. here is a live look at the scene. joining me by phone is lieutenant scott haggard. thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> what is the latest, if you will, on the search and discovery right now? >> our dive team discovered the body near the railroad bridge. and the body has been recovered. >> and is that the same bridge that the boat crashed into? >> yes, yes it is. >> and we're looking at pictures here of the search earlier today and of the boat. do you know what the two men were doing out on the water today? >> apparently they were part of some kind of a fishing tournament. >> were there other boats out there, as well? i presume so if it was part of a tournament. >> i'm not sure. >> how did you get word that the boat was in distress? >> i