gotham club. >> she'll be invited. >> i'm not a season ticket holder. on our broadcast tonight, out of the sky. another commercial jetliner vanishes off the radar as a horrible series of air disasters continues. tonight, we look at overall safety in light of it. direct hit on a united nations school in gaza. many dead and injured including women and children. and now the question, were they warned to get out? sudden impact, a deadly tornado tears through a campground filled with families on summer vacation. and a good night's sleep. what is the magic number of hours you need? experts now say it's not what you think. also tonight, the "50 shades" phenomenon explodes all over again. "nightly news" begins now. good evening.

the world awoke this morning to news of yet another commercial airline disaster. and once again it was a flight over a conflict zone. in this case where there's been rebel fighting in africa. but there was also severe weather in the area where the plane was last heard from and the wreckage was later spotted. but for folks who fly in the middle of the summer season, it's another in a recent series of disasters just in these past several days after what seemed like a long period of safety in the skies. it's where we begin here tonight with nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: it's been a rough six months for international aviation. all told, nearly 600 people have died. now, another crash. air algerie, flight 5017 an md83 flown by swift air, left burkina faso in africa and

crashed 50 minutes later in bad weather. like ukraine, northern mali is a war zone. in june faa warned pilots warned to fly below 24,000 feet citing the risk of anti-aircraft fire to include shoulder-fired, man-portable air defense systems. it's not clear what happened to flight 5017, but it's the latest in a string of incidents. a fatal passenger plane crash in taiwan wednesday with 48 dead, u.s. flights temporarily suspended into tel aviv. the shootdown of malaysia flight 17 over ukraine, malaysia flight 370 remains missing presumably 1500 miles off the coast of australia. and a terror watch for all u.s.-bound flights. >> the fact that we've had a cluster of incidents does not materially affect the fact that our skies and the skies around the world are safe. >> reporter: the faa lists 63 countries including cuba, yemen, north korea and pakistan where u.s. airlines are prohibited from flying or subject to flight restrictions and warnings. the secretary of transportation today. >> as the situation on the ground changes in some of these parts of the world, our guidance

perhaps will change. >> reporter: in fact, the chances are very good your flight will land safely. according to an m.i.t. statistician, your chances of being killed in a plane crash anywhere in the world are roughly one in 4 million. but in north america and europe that drops to one in 25 million. that means you could go 60,000 years flying every day before a fatal crash. the last fatal accident involving a u.s. carrier was in buffalo when 50 people died. that was in 2009. >> in this industry anybody's accident is everybody's accident. when there's a mishap, when something goes wrong, the industry works together to figure out why to keep it from happening again. >> reporter: an american holds dual nationality was scheduled to fly on that air algerie flight but the state department says he never boarded. despite the cluster of incidents the total number of fatal accidents this year is running well below the ten-year average. brian. >> tom costello covers aviation for us starting us off from our washington bureau tonight. tom, thanks.

and in the netherlands another solemn scene there today. 74 more coffins arrived carrying the remains of those lost on the malaysian jet shot down last week over ukraine. as the dutch people continue to show such reverence for the returning remains, the awful process of identification is just getting underway. meanwhile, at the crash site there in eastern ukraine more human remains were found just today. a full week after that plane was brought down. the dutch prime minister said he's sending 40 unarmed military police to ukraine to help in the effort to find the remaining victims and police up the site. other countries are helping. what's not helping is what the u.s. state department reported today. they have evidence russia is now firing artillery into ukraine along the border as the conflict heats up. now to the ongoing fighting in the middle east, the israeli assault on gaza in response to that rocket barrage. it claimed more civilians today,

many of them women and children, at least 16 palestinians killed in a school in gaza they thought was safer than staying in their homes. our chief foreign correspondent richard engel in gaza city for us again tonight. richard, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. this school was a designated refugee center run by the u.n. the u.n. says it was hit without warning and that there's no evidence weapons were inside. israel is investigating. witnesses say five explosions tore through this u.n.-run school in northern gaza. the playground took a direct hit. an outdoor class was soaked in blood. at a nearby hospital ambulance after ambulance brought in the injured, mostly children, before going back for more.

6-month-old achmed had shh rap are nel in his back. doctors with little time and few supplies removed the sharp metal without anesthetics. nearby, his father described the moment when his six children were blown away, he says, like scraps of paper. the hospital was overwhelmed by the flow of injured. none of them accepts israel's claim that it does its best to spare the innocent. >> that's a responsible thing to kill the children, the women. the children ask what? >> reporter: robert turner is the director of the u.n. agency that operates the school in gaza. do you know who struck this facility? >> well, we can't say with certainty. initial indication would be that it came from israeli forces. >> reporter: nbc's kate snow spoke with the israeli

military's official spokesman. >> indeed there's a possibility that there was a loose mortar that misshot. >> reporter: if you knew there were women and children staying in this shelter, why not just avoid that area? >> the terrorists determine where they need us. >> reporter: were militants operating inside this school? >> no, we're very strict about the neutrality of our installations. it's just civilians. >> reporter: schools like the one hit today have become a refuge for civilians. they believe the u.n. logo will protect them. but this is the fourth attack on a u.n. school in four days. for the wounded and the dead today there was no protection at all. this incident has sparked anger among palestinians who until now have not been involved in this conflict. thousands of palestinians in the west bank tonight marched toward jerusalem. there were violent clashes, several palestinians have been killed. and more demonstrations are expected tomorrow. the muslim holy day of prayer. brian. >> richard engel in gaza for us once again tonight. richard, thanks. the faa ban on u.s. airline

flights into and out of the airport in tel aviv has been lifted now. flights have resumed subject to the judgment of individual airlines even though rockets were fired at the airport again today and some were destroyed in midair by israel's so-called iron dome defense missile interception system. the u.s. has denied the original flight ban was in any way politically motivated meant to cripple transportation and tourism as a way of getting israel to embrace peace talks. tonight, we continue to follow areas of severe weather firing up on the radar after a deadly tornado strike on the eastern shore of virginia. a path of violent storms rolled through a campground filled with families on vacation. we get our report from the scene tonight from nbc's peter alexander. >> something crazy is going on outside. >> reporter: the storm was as fierce as it was unexpected. >> look at the tree. it fell on the guy's camper. >> oh, my god! >> reporter: an ef-1 tornado with 100-mile-per-hour winds

tore through the campground this morning demolishing trailers, shredding tents and snapping trees. >> trees on top of trailers and cars. it looked like a war zone. >> reporter: hail pounded the cherry stone family camping and rv resort packed with more than 1,300 people. terrifying april martinauer. >> my son was crying saying he didn't want to die. it's just heartbreaking because there's so many people that got hurt. >> reporter: it's one of the deadliest tornadoes in virginia history, killing two people. this couple from new jersey camped at this site every summer for years. they were killed when a tree collapsed on their tent. their 13-year-old son in a separate tent has life threatening injuries. at least 35 others were injured, some critically including children. rescuers flipped rvs to check for survivors. two trees nearly trapped heather holingworth's family in their cabin. >> the first thing i did was grab him and hid underneath one of the bunkbeds. >> reporter: jordan was in a

camper when the tornado hit tweeting, this is hell, i'm in hell. her grandparents escaped with minor injuries. this 3d image shows just how massive the storm was stretching 50,000 feet high. after a waterspout was spotted over the chesapeake bay, the national weather service issued a tornado warning at 8:20 a.m. 15 minutes later the tornado struck the campground. >> glass flying everywhere so i grabbed the kids and dog and we went under the dinette. >> reporter: survivors at a nearby high school are still rattled. and tonight more dark storm clouds are moving in here. the campground more than a mile away still closed tonight. emergency responders slowly allowing people to go back and pick up some of their belongings. but a mile away you can see the force of that tornado literally tearing this garage door off its hinges. and walk through the garage itself, the place is empty. much of what was inside pulled out by the force of that storm. and here, brian, you can see the garage door itself literally crumpled by the wind.

>> peter alexander with some vivid reminders of the storm damage from this morning on the virginia coast. peter, thanks. now to the pacific northwest where that massive wildfire that has burned nearly 400 square miles in washington state has now been half contained. firefighters have finally turned the corner on it with a big assist from some heavy rains last night. just today nbc's jacob rascon flew with the washington air national guard to see how widespread the damage already is. >> reporter: brian, the scope of the disaster is clear from the air. the community of alta lake lost 52 homes. incredible losses, a neighborhood left desolate. next door in the town of pateros 30 homes are gone. >> that's the town that was hit the hardest. you can see some of the devastation that was there on the ground. on one block here nothing left standing but a church.

four fires ignited by lightning merging into one massive firestorm, a quarter million acres burned, the largest wildfire on record in washington state leaving an ugly foot print no one here will ever forget. brian. >> jacob rascon with a view from above washington state for us today. an execution of an inmate in arizona last night was botched. it ended up taking ten times longer than it should have. now this is renewing questions about the death penalty and the drugs being used in lethal injections in this country. our report tonight from our justice correspondent pete williams. >> reporter: witnesses say about 12 minutes after lethal drugs were pumped into convicted murderer joseph wood, something was clearly going wrong. >> his mouth would open, chest rise, stomach would convulse. and it just kept doing that for an hour and a half. >> reporter: after an hour and 57 minutes, the state pronounced him dead. the governor ordered a full review.

the state prisons director said wood was never in any pain, but wood woods's lawyer says there is no way to be sure without monitoring brain waves. the same two drugs were used in ohio six months ago in an execution that took 26 minutes, the condemned man gasping for air. all states are struggling to find lethal drugs after suppliers wanted no part of capital punishment. joseph wood was convicted of killing his former girlfriend and her father at a car repair shop in tucson. their family members responded to claims that wood's execution was excruciating. >> what's excruciating is seeing your dad laying there in a pool of blood, seeing your sister laying there in a pool of blood. that's excruciating. >> reporter: a federal appeals court judge from california said using medicines meant to heal the human body for the opposite purpose is an enterprise doomed to failure. he suggested bringing back firing squads, which a legal expert says would be politically unpopular but effective. >> it's the most humane, the surest execution method.

it's the only method for which we actually train people to kill. >> reporter: the supreme court upheld lethal injection six years ago despite legal challenges to the new drug combinations it has repeatedly declined to take another look. pete williams, nbc news, washington. we'll take a break here. still ahead on our broadcast tonight, how much sleep should you be getting to feel your very best? what experts now say is the magic number and what happens if you don't get it. then later, "50 shades of grey," the steamy book now a steamy film and the phenomenon is heating up all over again effective today.

we are back as promised with some intriguing new research into something most americans seem to struggle with just about every night, and that's the amount of sleep that constitutes a good night's sleep. it calls into question the conventional wisdom namely that we need a full eight hours

ideally. our report from our chief medical editor dr. nancy snyderman. >> reporter: from sunset to sunrise and everything in between, we're a busy nation short on sleep. >> i stay up late getting things done and then i'm up early to get the kids up and going also. >> i just don't sleep as good as i used to. >> reporter: for some, many of us sleep simply isn't a priority. >> we are a society that we want to be getting things done whether it's work, whether it's spending time with family and friends, whether it's, you know, our own personal activities that we enjoy. >> reporter: so how much sleep do we really need? some of history's most notable figures are famous for their unusual sleep habits. leonardo da vinci slept as little as two to four hours. thomas edison slept three to four hour s and took frequent naps. and margaret thatcher ran the uk

on four hours a night. for most of us eight hours has been the conventional wisdom, but several new studies suggest seven hours may be better. those who sleep seven hours appear to do better on memory tests and live longer, too. but shaving 20 minutes off that can impair brain function. of course, getting even seven hours of shut eye is just a dream for a lot of us. at the earth cafe in los angeles, the strong coffee helps elizabeth mcafee jump start her day. >> i'm not the nicest person when i need sleep. i can always have more sleep. >> reporter: the best way to get a good night's sleep, a cool, dark room, no tv in the bedroom and disconnect from your gadget screens 30 minutes before sleep. the amount of sleep you need depends in some part on your heredity. your parents' sleep patterns may be a guide, and your age matters. a teenager needs as much sleep as a toddler. and interestingly as we get older we need less sleep, brian. >> figuring if i sleep during commercial breaks and the meetings we have here, i could put together seven hours, maybe. doc, thank you.

as always, nancy snyderman here with us. we're back in a moment with the 17 siblings who just hit the jackpot.

45 years ago today the three conquering heroes came home from the surface of the moon. and "apollo 11" splashed down in the pacific. the crew, armstrong, aldrin and collins, then suffered the ultimate indignity. they had to be rubbed down with disinfectant upon landing. they were quarantined for three weeks for fear they were carrying some rare moon germs or foreign pathogens from the great unknown. president nixon visited them in their specially fitted airstream quarantine trailer. had to speak to them through the glass. back here on earth for the folks who live and vacation in wisconsin and minnesota, it's already been a weird summer thanks to the summer version of the polar vortex that just drove temperatures down into the 40s in some places in the morning. now the problem is may flies. the may flies swarm showed up on

local doppler radar in lacrosse, wisconsin, during a clear night. and the bugs showed up on everything else including cars, sidewalks. rising from the mississippi river, the bugs are drawn naturally to the light of the moon or any nearby car headlight or front porch light. thankfully their life cycle is just a few days. the dying bugs make for an aromatic mess. the upside, it's peak fly fishing season because they land on the water to lay eggs. kind of thing you like to see, 17 siblings came forward to share the $20 million jackpot in new jersey. meet the anderson family, all 17 of them. they range in ages from 53 to 76. they opted for a lump sum payment of $14 million. two of the family members are going to use the money to repair homes damaged by hurricane sandy. they say their late mom always played the lottery and dreamed

of a family bungalow collection at the jersey shore. $14 million should help achieve that dream. when we come back tonight, the movie preview that was burning up the web today.

finally tonight, the dirty book that caused a huge sensation after it went mainstream. as you may know it's currently

in post production as a movie. all it took was a glimpse at the trailer just released to rev up excitement all over again about "50 shades of grey." our own savannah guthrie volunteered for this one. >> reporter: it might not be suitable to watch at work, but that didn't stop the steamy new trailer for "50 shades of grey" from becoming the hottest thing on the internet today. debuting this morning on "today.". >> so what are we just supposed to go on right after that? >> reporter: the clip became a viral sensation. the #50shadesofgrey mentioned on twitter more than 238,000 times. this for a movie that's not even out until valentine's day released by a division of nbc universal. based on the erotic novel that caused a sensation two years ago, the book's racy scenes are brought to life by the film's young stars, jamie dornan and

dakota johnson, daughter of don johnson and melanie griffith. >> do you want them to see this movie? >> i think probably no. >> reporter: "new york times" called the book mommy porn. a handful of libraries even banned it. >> it's not what we deem as appropriate material for bookshelves. >> reporter: critics say it glorifies an abusive relationship, but the book went on to sell more than 90 million copies and has been translated into 52 languages. >> he makes a low sound in his throat. >> reporter: becoming a book club favorite. >> the first book literally had me breathless. >> reporter: and spawning an industry that includes fifty shades wine and lingerie. >> i exercise control in all things, ms. steel. >> that must be boring. >> reporter: but will the book's loyal fans flock to the theater? >> nobody thinks that they want to see that on a screen, but everybody really does. >> reporter: with a clever marketing strategy that released a racier trailer online than on television, the filmmakers are betting "50 shades of grey" will continue making a lot of green.

savannah guthrie, nbc news, new york. well, look at the time. that's our broadcast for this thursday night. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. of course we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. right back here tomorrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com sizzling and people are looking for relief but contamination concerns have shut down two popular bay area lakes. good evening. thanks for joining us. >> classic summer heat wave is upon us. live look in san jose this evening. get ready, tomorrow will be even hotter. we have two reports tonight. nbc bay area jodi hernandez is talk about possible trouble that shut down two water holes. we have ourselves a trifecta

here. >> coming together over 24 hours. it is holt today. getting close to dangerous levels of heat. walnut creek, 95. even warm for san francisco standards at 78. you can see where we had some of the hottest weather across the tri-valley. numbers are beginning to come down as the sun sets. at 6:00, it's warm for our standards. 90 in danville. also 86 in arenda. we're focused on that fire danger. even winds 10 to 12 miles per hour will keep that fire threat high as we head through saturday and sunday's forecast. coming up in that full forecast we will detail who will hit 103 degrees tomorrow in just a few minutes. >> okay. see you in a bit, jeff. what do you do when it gets this hot? you head to the water, of course. if you're looking to head to the lake in the east bay, beware. beaches are closed at t