>> this is an nbc news special report. here's matt lauer and savannah guthrie. >> good morning. as we come on the air this morning, we have news of a passenger plane crash. 148 people on board. the plane reportedly crashing in the french alps. the flight originated in spain on the way to germany. >> details are just coming in and being operated by german wings airline, a budget airline operated by lufstanza. 142 passengers and six members of the crew. the weather was good at the time of the crash, but this plane has

gone down somewhere in the french alps. bill neely is in london. anything more you can add? >> yes, the fact that it has gone down in the french alps is not good. it's about 9,000 feet up with few roads leading to it. 142 passengers on board, two pilots and four crew. i suppose from a rescuer's point of view that's very, very difficult terrain. at the moment it was not far into the flight from barcelona to d uss eldorf when it crashed. it is an airliner that is a subsidiary of the german airliner lufstanza. german wings is a low cost

airliner. they were heading back probably from vacation in barcelona. details are sketchy at the moment. the weather seemed to be fine. it was cloudy with just light wind. the pilot did send an sus urks srksstus urks srkss srkssus-s sos message, but rescue teams are on the way. it is an inaccessible area. from a rescue point of view that's not good. >> bill thank you very much. >> tom costello covers aviation. you are just getting the details as we are. talk about this plane. we put the map up and it started in barcelona on the way to d uss eldorf. this looks like about the midway point or less. >> that's concerning. the vast majority of incidents involving fatal or nonfatal crashes for take off and

landing, it's rare to have something happen in-flight. you will have the authorities looking at all probabilities here. the airbus 820 is a work horse of a plane. it is flown around the world and built in europe but flown heavily here in the u.s. by u.s. airways and american airlines and united and others. this is a very reliable plane and what we call a fly by wire plane. it is heavily automated with a lot of computer assistance and a lot of back up systems helping the pilot to fly the plane. it is not the old 737 pulley system. this is a sophisticated aircraft. what happened is anybody's guess. >> the last crash of an a-320 that we can find was air asia flight 8501 back in december of 20 freezing rain from surabaya

to singapore. did we find out what caused that plane to go down? >> off the top of my head i don't know. this plane is just very, very commonly flown around the world and i have been to the airbus factories in france and they will tell you we build planes for all of the world to fly, not just the best and the brightest that come out of the world air forces. we build them for pilot who is may not be topical ber. this is concerning. >> he may have gotten a distress call. >> they had an incident of some sort. whether it was -- my concern is that a single engine failure will generally not bring down an aircraft these days. you would have to be looking at

a catastrophic event whether that would be both engines were lost or keeping in mind that birds don't fly at 34,000 feet. whether it's sort of a criminal event. we simply don't know. >> tom costello thank you very much. once again we know that an airbus a-320 has crashed somewhere in the french alps on a flight from barcelona to d uss eldorf being operated by german wings airlines. a new sense of threat to the home base we haven't seen before. >> the pentagon contacted all 100 and informed them of the threat and offered no personal

protection to them or their families. >> just don't have enough resources to follow these threats or potential threats 24/7 and you just can't read their minds. >> instead, service members are being advised to delete personal information and tighten up privacy settings on their social media websites. defense secretary ashton carter. >> we take the safety of our people very seriously. >> ironically the pentagon itself they have inadvertently provided those identities to terrorist. public affairs website first posted names and photos of 66 of those americans deployed in the war against isis with job descriptions like bomb squadron commander. defense officials say no intelligence indicating an actual attack is imminent but consider the threat alone an act of terrorism. >> that was nbc's jim miklaszewski reporting. a security scare for president obama's niece turned out to be unsubstantiated. last night security was

increased at the maryland ncaa women's basketball game. the president's niece plays for princeton. university of maryland police heard monday afternoon from a caller who reported a man with a gun who mentioned robinson. the game went on without any incident. >> leslie is safe of she's in my locker room. nobody loves her like i do. she's an important part of our team. keep the freaks out of the gym. >> president watched first round against wisconsin green bay on saturday but he was not at last night's game. in her last scheduled speech before a possible presidential announcement hillary clinton has offered the press an olive branch. >> another new hair style, a new email account, why not a new relationship with the press. so, here goes.

no more secrecy. >> clinton making the remarks during a journalism ceremony last night. earlier in the day clinton reportedly met privately with president obama at the white house. josh ernest told reporters president obama and secretary clinton enjoy catching up in person when their schedules permit. this afternoon they met privately for about an hour at the white house and discussed a range of topics. nbc meteorologist bill karins here with your tuesday forecast. good morning. >> good morning to you. the tornado season is about to kick off. maybe some of us can put winter behind us and look forward to spring. unfortunately with spring does come some dangers out there. we haven't had any, zero tornadoes so far as we've gone throughout the month of march. that's never happened up to this point. the previous record was march 23rd, now march 24th. 1951 was the record for fewest in the month of march with six. let's see how many we can get in the next week or so.

we will have a potential for at least a few. we didn't have any overnight, thunderstorms in missouri. as we go throughout the day today, we will see a chance of storms especially late this evening. i don't think we'll see tornadoes. more or less damaging rain hail i don't think many all the way from springfield, fort smith. the bigger chance and first day of severe weather that will be more widespread will be on wednesday and that will be the middle of the country. we'll have to watch areas from abilene, wichita falls, oklahoma city fort smith and some way clip the dallas area. that's the big headline for the next few days. severe weather for the heartland. as far as forecast for today, to the west fine a little warmerr two. most areas of california will be dry.

looking at the weather along that flight path for the airbus that has crashed. didn't look like any big storms were in the path either. >> thank you for looking at that. new details come into nbc news about the plane crash involving 153 passengers. it has crashed in southern france. the pilot of the aircraft made a distress call before the plane disappeared from radar around 6:00 a.m. eastern time. new details right after the break. you're watching "early today." i bring the gift of the name your price tool to help you find a price that fits your budget. uh-oh. the name your price tool. she's not to be trusted. kill her. flo: it will save you money! the name your price tool isn't witchcraft! and i didn't turn your daughter into a rooster. she just looks like that. burn the witch! the name your price tool a dangerously progressive idea. i found out the hard way... not all washes take care of intimate odor.

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affiliate. they tweeted this just moments ago. info:we have recently become aware of media reports speculating on an incident though we still don't have any own confirmed information. then this from french news agency afp. breaking, no survivors expected in french alps plane crash. hollande. we continue to bring you the very latest as the morning goes on with this story. das top stories from "wall street journal," israel spied on iran talks. according to the journal, they also shared what was learned with american lawmakers to try to sink a potential nuclear deal. prime minister netanyahu's office denied those allegations to nbc news calling them utterly false. this morning america has fewer eyes on the ground in a country on the brink of civil war where al qaeda is fighting for a larger foothold. that is yemen. it's gotten so dangerous there a military official tells nbc news

350 special ops, green berets intelligence agents were lifted out of the country. classified materials were destroyed along with millions of dollars worth of equipment to keep them from falling into enemy hands. in utah governor gary herbert signed a death penalty law allowing the use of a firing squad. if the state can't come up with a drug for lethal injection. after senator ted cruz's announcement he'll run for president, not only was you cruz you lose trending on twitter but a negative response also came from some republicans. texas senator john cornyn refused to officially endorse him and republican congressman peter king posted, "the republican party and the american people have to be able to find a more qualified candidate for president than ted cruz. shutting down the federal government and reading dr. seuss on the senate floor are the marks of a carnival barker not the leader of the free world." ted cruz and his wife heidi will

sit down for an exclusive interview on "today" later on this morning. the national search is on for the little girl seen in this photo from a hurricane katrina rescue. the veteran hugging her wants to track her down. on twitter the #findkatrinakid was shared thousands of times. the air force times says the resilient girl reminded the vet that he wanted to spend his life helping people saying if i never do anything else again, that hug and that smile made it all worthwhile. the latest on that downed lufthansa airliner that crashed in southern france this morning. new details are coming into nbc news as we speak. plus game on. the new football rule that will keep fans in front of the tv longer. if you have medicare part d, walgreens gets that you might be at the corner of "looking for a good deal" and "sheesh, i wish i'd looked some more." that's why walgreens makes it easy to switch your prescriptions and save money. just stop by.

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breaking news a passenger plane with as many as 148 people on board has crashed in the french alps. it reportedly went down within the last hour. no definite word yet on a cause. but french president francois hollande believes there are no survivors. we will have more details ahead. now turn to the latest in sports from my friend angie goff. good morning, angie. >> reporter: good morning, milissa. we start with grizzlies, fourth nba team to clinch a playoff berth. 23 gasol 21 rout of the knicks.

a triple-double against nets. turner 12 assists, 10 rebounds snapping celtics three-game losing streak for 110-91 win. to women's ncaa tournament. maryland and princeton's undefeated season. the top seeded terrapins 17-2 run in the second half to eliminate princeton with that 85-70 victory. the terms advance to the sweet 16 and will face duke on saturday. check out this buzzer beater finish at chapel hill. >> in the frontcourt gets a look for the win. >> jamie cherry a freshman gets the game winning jumper with .6 seconds left on the clock topping ohio state 86-84. they will face south carolina on friday. bye-bye blackouts, the nfl will not block any games from local television during the upcoming season. in monday's annual owners

meetings the team voted for a one-year suspension of the blackout policy for the preseason and regular season. afterwards all 32 teams posed for this photo. check out chief coach reid on the end rocking his juan shirt. hey, it is off-season right? you've probably seen this, the video of the crying girl after the upset with villanova. check this out, tears now turned to smiles. she got to rock out with the roots on "the tonight show." ♪ ♪ uniform and all. afterwards fallon giving her a basket there along with two tickets to taylor swift concert. >> announcer: "early today" brought to you by just for men. just you and the look you want. >> with that milissa, i'll send it back to you. >> all right angie, thank you. more details on our breaking news.

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i knew he was there. it felt like, you know, a way to keep his memory a part of my family and part of my world. >> and on sunday, this just in, music legend david crosby from crosby stills and gnash, struck a driver while driving home. his tesla was driving at 55 miles per hour the posted speed limit. the 73-year-old crosby may not have seen the jogger due to the sun glare. he did immediately stop to help. no life threatening injuries. police say neither drugs nor alcohol were involved. and the first late, late show aired last night. and he tweeted this, welcome to talk show hell. have fun. you're watching "early today." why do i take metamucil everyday? because it helps me skip the bad stuff. i'm good. that's what i like to call, the meta effect. 4-in-1 multi-health metamucil clinically proven to help you feel less hungry between meals.

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today," we want to update you on the latest details of that passenger plane crash in the french alps. it was going from barcelona to the german decide of dusseldorf. french president francois hollande said no survivors are expected of the plane is german airbus like this one. local media reported as many as 142 passengers on board as well as two pilots and four crew members. the flight was operated by germanwings, a lufthansa affiliate. they tweeted this just moments ago. info:we have recently become aware of media reports speculating on an incident though we still do not have any own confirmed information. the french president also tweeted this i want to express

my full solidarity to the families of the victims of the air accident. it is a mourning a tragedy. we will continue to bring you the very latest on this as the morning goes on. some other stories we're following today. the house has voted to urge president obama to send lethal weapons to ukraine to help protect itself from russian-backed rebels. the nonbinding passed with overwhelming majority of 348-48. so far the president has only signed off on nonlethal aid and sanctions against russia. american civil liberties union said chicago police had a much higher rate of stop and frisk last summer than new york city ever had. aclu report said it identified more than 250,000 chicago stop and frisk encounters from mai through august of last year in which there were no arrests. president obama hosted more than 100 students from 30 states at the white house science fair. the president inspected inventions and innovation.

but he was particularly impressed with a device from legos that automatically turns the pages of books. >> group hug. group hug. good job. >> best hug ever. the device was dreamed up by a group of very cute girl scouts donning superman capes or super girl capes. a new addition in tampa florida, very cute. a leopard club so cute born at the zoo. there you go. park staff will hand raise the cub until it is six-month-old when it will be introduced to potential mates. they say hand rearing will help them improve socialization and prevent fatal attacks. now a look ahead. president obama scheduled to meet with afghanistan's new president. the two leaders are expected to discuss u.s. funding for security in afghanistan and future u.s. troop levels there. i'm milissa rehberger, you're watching "early today."