denies its forces are in ukraine firing on ukrainians. >> they are signing a cease-fire and still attacking mariupol. can they be trusted? absolutely not. >> big countries can't stomp on little countries. >> president obama wrapping up a key nato summit today. >> deputy national security adviser ben rhodes says the administration is not ruling out u.s. ground troops when it comes to fighting in syria. >> we're not ruling that out. >> 1:00 p.m. on the east coast. 10:00 a.m. an the west. a cease-fire in ukraine. pro-russian rebels in the ukrainian government signing a deal today after talks in belarus. the head of the cease-fire announcement, fighting continues near the ukraunian port city of mariupol. president obama spoke about this cease-fire just this past hour in wales. >> we are hopeful, but based on

past experience also skeptical that, in fact, the separatists will follow through and the russians will stop violating ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. so it has to be tested. >> also today, nato approved the formation of a rapid response force that could deploy quickly to eastern european countries. we'll have a live report from ukraine in just a couple of minutes. and the pentagon is confirming the death of the leader of a major al qaeda affiliate in africa. that is al shabaab. ahmed abdi godane was killed in a remote part sof maulia on monday. nine hellfire missiles and one 500-pound guided bomb were used in this strike. godane's death is being called a significant blow to that terror group. the third american missionary to have contracted ebola is now back in the u.s. dr. richard sacra arrived in omaha before dawn.

it has the largest biocontainment unit in the united states. the doctors spoke at a news conference just this last hour. >> our unit is especially designed, exactly for this type of patient and for this purpose. it's a per safe environment for the patient as well as for our health care providers and the rest of our patients. >> dr. sacra was infected with ebola while delivering babies in liberia for the charity sim. dr. kent brantly wrote an article describing his illness and calls on the world to help west africa. writing we must take action to stop it now. let's drill down on the breaking news. the cease-fire reached in ukraine. ahead of the announcement of this deal in belarus, fighting continued to rage on the ground. just listen to this report

earlier from the daily rundown. nbc's keir simmons was there. >> the pro-russians are attempting to achieve that by raining down artillery and shells on the ukrainians. there again, another explosion. i don't know if you can hear -- >> we do. we hear it. >> keir is still an the ground there in mariupol and joins us on the phone. have you seen any change in the fighting since this cease-fire was announced? >> yeah, absolutely, ronan. good afternoon. since you -- that report that you were playing there where there was just, as you heard, constant, constant shelling on the ukrainian forces, as the announcement came that there would be a cease-fire, the shelling stopped. and then we began to see ukrainian military pull back from the checkpont that had been under fire, including tanks and

armored personnel carriers. and then there was -- the guns were silent. there was a withdrawal by the ukrainians. we did hear some small arms fire but it did appear to us, and we had to leave now because, as you can imagine it gets dark and too dangerous for us to be out at dark. but it certainly in the hours that followed that cease-fire agreement and then the cease-fire coming into place, it did appear to us as if it was holding. we did, though, talk to some ukrainian military on the ground and said to them, do you believe that this cease-fire is real? do you believe that a deal has been done? and they said, no, we don't. we just don't trust the russians. and they kept forces there in preparation in case they came under attack again. but so far, at least here in mariupol, a port crucial to ukraine, they appear to have at

the moment to hold off that attack by the pro-russians and now the guns have stopped, the firing has stopped. >> still a long way to go on the ground. nbc's keir simmons, appreciate your following this story in ukraine for us. thank you. joining me to discuss today's cease-fire further, michael mcphaul. thank you both of you. i'll start with you ambassador. in the president's remarks this past hour he described himself as hopeful but skeptical. do you think that's the reaction across much of the global community? >> yes, of course. you know, there's been attempts at cease-fires before. so one needs to be skeptical, but one also needs to be hopeful that this will stick. particularly that president poroshenko himself decided that this was in ukraine's interest for now to sign up to. we have to express our support for his decision. i would just point out, however,

the cease-fire, the details are now coming out says nothing about a political solution. so this is about military combat but it's not about solving the crisis of sovereignty in eastern ukraine yet. >> such an important point. let's take a deeper look at that. professor, what is in and what is not in this cease-fire? so far what we've learned is we know it involves a prisoner exchange, some humanitarian aid, a withdrawal of heavy weapons. i think we had a diagram of some of the key points in there. what are the strengths and what are the weaknesses of that arrangement? >> well, russia effectively invaded ukraine. still present. and the question about the future of ukraine's sovereignty is, of course, still completely unsolved here. >> same question to you, ambassador. is there anything that is in this cease-fire that you expected not to be or vice versa? >> well, i was a bit surprised there was not more about a political settlement because they have been associating the

representatives met and i don't want to second-guess the ukra e ukrainian government but they're signing a cease-fire at a time when the rshian side is on the offensive. if this just sinks in now and stays this way in terms of the lines drawn for weeks or months or, god forbid, years, that's means effectively putin has created a pros in conflict, similar to what you have in georgia and moldova. i don't think that's in the long-term interest of the ukrainian people. >> how meaningful is it that, of course, russia doesn't acknowledge that it's a party to this conflict and isn't a party to this agreement either? >> you know it gets exhausting to watch the two-step. remember, ambassador cherken said there are 2,000 or 3,000 russian soldiers there. they are just on holiday. i think that's very difficult to have serious negotiations when we're talking about, you know,

really heavily armed soldiers in tanks on holiday in eastern ukraine. >> right. there's a degree of denial there. let's look at the american response. president obama saying about the cease-fire that does have implications for economic sanctions. take a listen to this. >> the only reason that we're seeing this cease-fire at this moment is because of both the sanctions that have already been applied and the threat of further sanctions which are having a real impact on the russian economy and have isolated russia in a way that we have not seen in a very long time. >> all right. so are sanctions working? >> sanctions definitely are being taken into account on the russian side and they would deepen, and i think that there's no doubt that part of the move in the last day has been given the nato meeting. but there's a broader mess here, in my view, which is that there

were two crises considered at nato. the middle east crisis and ukraine crisis. and the middle east, the united states is bombing. we're engaged in operations to overthrow a government in syria. and so the messages that are being sent by both these powers are this is a power game. the united states and its allies are going to do what they want to do militarily in the middle east. russia is going to do militarily in ukraine. each side stands for principle. and each side is claiming the mantel of international law. and so this is a mess in my view. much deeper than just focusing only on the, crane side. >> not exactly an optimistic assessment from sachs. >> on this question of the u.s. response, especially coming out of these latest remarks from president obama, has he shown the kind of leadership that is necessary on this issue? >> generally, i'm impressed. i think it was right to sanction

russia that didn't happy the last time they used military force in georgia in 2008. i think it was right to strengthen nato. i think this will be seen as a successful summit. i think it was right to help ukraine. what needs to happen further, however, is more of that. russia escalated so there has to be new sanctions. if there's not, then i think putin succeeded in floating the cease-fire precisely at the nato summit as jeff just described. there has to be more direct assistance, lethal, nonlethal intelligence. i'll leave that to the experts. but there has to be more direct assistance to the ukrainians in response to this violation of their sovereignty. >> we'll see if either side of that happens. ambassador mcfaul, jeffrey sachs, appreciate it. >> president obama forms the coalition of the willing, 2 hadn't -- 2.0. is it going to be enough? chuck todd joins me next.

a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, this can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain, and improve daily physical function so moving is easier. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain. and it's not a narcotic. you and your doctor should balance the benefits with the risks. all prescription nsaids, like celebrex, ibuprofen, naproxen and meloxicam have the same cardiovascular warning. they all may increase the chance of heart attack or stroke, which can lead to death. this chance increases if you have heart disease or risk factors such as high blood pressure or when nsaids are taken for long periods. nsaids, like celebrex, increase the chance of serious skin or allergic reactions, or stomach and intestine problems, such as bleeding and ulcers, which can occur without warning and may cause death. patients also taking aspirin and the elderly are at increased risk for stomach bleeding and ulcers.

don't take celebrex if you have bleeding in the stomach or intestine, or had an asthma attack, hives, other allergies to aspirin, nsaids or sulfonamides. get help right away if you have swelling of the face or throat, or trouble breathing. tell your doctor your medical history and ask your doctor about celebrex. for a body in motion. hey pal? you ready? can you pick me up at 6:30? ah... (boy) i'm here! i'm here! (cop) too late. i was gone for five minutes! ugh! move it. you're killing me. you know what, dad? i'm good. (dad) it may be quite a while before he's ready, but our subaru legacy will be waiting for him. (vo) the longest-lasting midsize sedan in its class. introducing the all-new subaru legacy. it's not just a sedan.

it's a subaru.

allies and partners are prepared to join in a broad international effort to combat the threat posed by isil. they've agreed to play a role in providing security and humanitarian assistance to those on the front lines. >> president obama just this past hour on the new coalition and need to take on isis. it includes nine other countries. president obama says he expects them to be joined by arab allies in the region as well. >> i think it is absolutely critical that we have arab states and specifically sunni majority states that are rejecting the kind of extremist

annihilism we're seeing out of isil that say that is not what islam is about and prepare to join us actively in the fight. >> this following days of the administration taking heat for an apparent lack of a clear road map for confronting isis. so is this the latest sign of a more defined strategy? and more importantly, will it work? chuck todd, nbc news political director and new moderator of "meet the press" will be interviewing the president this weekend. thanks for being here. what is this new coalition building approach tell us about the changing character of this administration's response to isis? >> well, i think what you see is they are planning a very long term effort to get rid of isis. that's what you're seeing. this, in many ways, ronan, looks almost very much like 1989, 1990 circa bush 41 administration when you had jim baker flying around the world to build a very large coalition to take on

saddam hussein at that time. you feel like that's the size of coalition the president is looking for. john kerry is looking for. if you look at what i feel look they set up there, you put up basically the european nations, the western nations on board this. the president himself made reference to the united nations, meaning the big general assembly meeting happens where you are in nork city. that appears to be the next step of where they hope to add the arab states that the president himself talked about and add those sunni majority states. so number one, i think it's laying out that he wants to do this broad coalition, this is going to be a long fight. he's using language like degrade and ultimately destroy. it's very similar language to how he and president bush used to talk about going to war against al qaeda. so he's laying that groundwork. puts it all together and it sounds like to me because this is going to be long term, he knows he's going to have to come to congress but wants that

coalition in place before he asked for that congressional vote. >> is meaningful action -- the other historical comparison is the second bush administration's where it was much more about messaging. >> what about poland. >> i'll tell you, i've had folks grumble to me, like doesn't the united states sell a lot of military equipment to saudi arabia? are they ever going to use it? why do we have to use -- that sort of aspect. and i get that sort of frustration from some folks when they think about all of the military assistance the united states does provide some of these arab states. and yet they still want the united states to be the lead on the security. of course, they are the ones most -- they are the ones in the near term having to deal with isis as much as, obviously, europe is very concerned about this and the united states themselves. i'm not trying to mitigate it about saying who has the greater threat to deal with here. so i think there's a little bit of that. but it does -- this one feels a

little more broader, and i think when you look at the hessitance. this is a reluctant warrior in president obama. he's not going about this in a way that he's anxious to be doing this. i don't think he fully commits unless he believes the coalition is a little more real this time. not like the one you described with bush 43. >> on that characterization of him as a reluctant warrior, it's been revealing to look at his language versus the language of those in his cabinet. we'll follow isis to the gates of hell. isis has to be destroyed. and president obama not long ago using the language, we'll shrink isis to a manageable problem. does that show a split in tone or more substantive divisions in this cabinet? >> i thing substantive agreement is what to you do after you're done bombing isis in syria? that's the problem -- that's the complex problem here.

there's no disagreement an trying to get rid of isis. the disagreement comes with, how do you do it in syria? how do you not prop up assad? how do you do this? you are sort of the enemy of my enemy, is it really an apply when talking about iran? i think that's the reluctancy here. the president was elected to sort of end this war footing that america has been on. now here he is about to essentially reinstate a war footing for the united states. at least when it comes to isis. i think that certainly is wearing an him a little bit, that he's -- no strategy he comes up with is one you get the sense is going to end before january 20th, 2017. i think the last thing he ever thought he'd do would be handing a hot active war effort to his -- to his successor. so i think all of that wears an him a little bit. >> by all accounts, the last thing he wanted. you mentioned him having to go to the hill eventually an this. what is he up against in terms of domestic politics of this? seems like both parties are

pressuring him to do more at this point. >> look, there are loud voices in both parties that want him to do more. i look at, you know, i think the rank and file members are more finger in the wind on this. i think they are truly trying to take the temperature of their own constituents. there's a senate debate this week that was telling. the north carolina senate debate, hotly contested senate race. first question out of the gate was about dealing with isis, going into syria, whether they'd support authorization? the republican challenger tom tillis, both were reluctant to fully -- they both want to say yes, we have to get rid of isirks but were they ready to commit all of snat you can see the hesitancy there. we've mistake be the loud voices of some of the hawks on both parties with where rank and file is. i don't know if this is as easy of a call when it comes to congress as people might think. i think they are more in tune of the public's skittishness about being on a war footing,

essentially for 25 straight years you could argue. >> tough fight against isis and a tough political fight ahead. chuck todd, always appreciate your insights an this. congratulations on the new gig. everybody at home, watch chuck's debut this weekend on "meet the press" and the interview with the president coming up. he's got some extraordinary things planned for that program. breaking news right now. two fighter jets have been scrambled to investigate an unresponsive plane over the atlantic ocean. the light business and utility aircraft like this one departed from rochester, new york, just this morning. its flight plan had it bound for naples, florida. the passengers haven't responded to several messages to communicate. norad and the faa are keeping an eye on this situation. we'll brng you more as soon as it comes in. just ahead, a third american now on american soil with the ebola virus. we're live from the hospital that just received him right in the heart of the country. that's after the brack. break.

we know we're not the center of your life, but we'll do our best to help you connect to what is. we're changing the way we do business, with startup ny. we've created tax free zones throughout the state.

and startup ny companies will be investing hundreds of millions of dollars in jobs and infrastructure. thanks to startup ny, businesses can operate tax free for 10 years. no property tax. no business tax. and no sales tax. which means more growth for your business, and more jobs. it's not just business as usual. see how new york can help your business grow, at startup.ny.gov when folks think about wthey think salmon and energy. but the energy bp produces up here creates something else as well: jobs all over america. engineering and innovation jobs. advanced safety systems & technology. shipping and manufacturing. across the united states, bp supports more than a quarter million jobs. when we set up operation in one part of the country, people in other parts go to work. that's not a coincidence. it's one more part of our commitment to america.

now. two fighter jets have just been scrambled to investigate an unresponsive plane over the atlantic ocean. that plane is the sakata tbm 700 like this one. it was departing rochester, new york, earlier this morning bound for naples, florida. so far the passengers on board that plane have not been responding to attempts to communicate. norad is continuing to monitor this situation and the faa is also keeping an eye. we're going to be bringing you more as soon as we get it. in the meantime, we have jim tillman, aviation expert on the line right now. do we have you on the phone? >> yes, i'm here. >> thank you for joining us. what can you tell us about this situation? what kind of a jet is this, and what are its typical applications? >> if it's the same airplane that you have shown on air, it's not really a true jet. it's more of a turbo prop aircraft, single engine. >> so what kind of passengers

would be on board this aircraft typically? >> well, i mean, i don't know. business passengers, whatever else. it's not really a commercial airplane in the greatest sense of the word. not that it's not used for commercial purposes from time to time. it's just not a large airplane in terms of the way that most passengers like to think in terms of a commercial airplane. it's a relatively small in comparison for what people fly on. >> potentially how many people are on board this aircraft? >> well, i looked at this version of it in a while but it looks to be something like 10 or 12 passengers, or in that range. maybe a little bit more. but it's not, you know, it's not like a 737 or 777 or whatever else. it's a small airplane. >> so we know that two f-15s are flying with the plane east of florida. the windows are apparently frosted. it's unknown how much fuel is left. norad has been in touch with

cuban authorities via the coast guard and u.s. military jets are not going to enter cuban air space. that's what norad is telling us over the wires. but, jim, tell us, what kind of circumstances could have led to this unresponsiveness? are there innocent explanations that could be at play here? >> well, as you -- the key effort you mentioned is that the windows are frosted. if the windows are frosted, it gives rise to the idea that they may very well have lost pressurization and that means that they were literally going to sleep from hypoxia. this has happened before a few times, of course, where we've had airplanes that the pilot and crew and they have all not had adequate pressurization for whatever reason, and what happens is you get hypoxia and it's very slowly and very

silently begins to take your ability to reason away and then you go to sleep and you don't wake up. if that's the case, no one on that airplane is awake and that means it's a -- an airplane that's flying solo without anybody at the controls. >> jim, mirroring exactly what you just said, norad has just established this may involve hypoxia, just as you were speculating. a lot of souls potentially in jeopardy. what is the next step for norad and the faa in a case like this? >> i don't know what their policies are. but there's not a whole lot they can do. the airplane is not a threat to anybody. i mean it will eventually run out of fuel and it will crash as a result of nobody at the controls. i don't know if norad has a procedure that if they see this airplane about to enter air space, if they'll shoot it down

or not. it sounds like there's nobody on that airplane that's alive, at least that's the way it sounds. if that's the case, it's a decision that's made out of the full authority of norad. i'm not privy to that information. >> we're about to show the audience the flight aware track for that plane. we have more information coming in every second on this. jim, you mentioned there's a chance this plane could just go down of its own accord. could that happen over land in a populated space? >> it could happen anywhere. there's no way to predict necessarily where it would happen. if you aren't over the ocean, it might stay over the ocean. i don't know the exact direction that is heading from where it is right now and whether or not in the next hour or so that would take him over land some place. it's a matter of trying to figure out how much fuel he had on board at the time he took off and how much of that may very well have been exhausted over

this period of time. and then the rest of it is just a matter of -- >> jim, i'm going to ask you to hold that thought. we have more breaking news now. norad just this moment tweeting that the unresponsive aircraft has entered cuban air space. norad fighters have, therefore, had to break off their trail of that aircraft. what does that mean for the fate of any potential passengers an this flight if there are any still surviving? >> well, i don't know what the cuban government would do under these circumstances. if they really are thinking realistically, they'll know the airplane poses absolutely no threat to anybody in cuba. i mean, unless it ran out of fuel right offer the island and crashes into cuba. i have a feeling, and i don't know the altitude of the airplane and that sort of thing and i obviously don't know how much fuel he's got.

but it will probably fly right over the ocean again. that's just speculation. again, i don't know the heading of the airplane and i don't know its altitude, but that's what i would suspect. it certainly doesn't pose any threat to anybody except in the unlikely event that he would crash into something that was populated. >> jim, stick around. we are joined right now on the phone, i believe, by jim cavanaugh, a former special agent with the atf. jim cavanaugh, should we suspect links to terrorist activity here based on what you are seeing? >> these light aircraft really would have to have a pretty good payload of explosives on board to make it any kind of a terrorist thing. of course, the travel through cuba does not necessarily indicate any strike against the continental u.s. so probably, you know, we had one a few weeks ago where the

pilot was unresponsive and crashed in the atlantic. so this could be a medical emergency or certainly could be some kind of hijack situation but it maybe not a terrorist situation. of course, this is private aviation or smaller avyagss, not large commercial aviation so there's a difference. >> jim cavanaugh, what options are available for deal with this situation now that this aircraft has entered cuban air space? >> yeah, it's going to be really up to the cuban government, cuban military, probably, to see what they're going to do with it. shortly, it could probably overfly cuba if they there go and if we see it go south into the greater caribbean ocean down there towards south america. that will be an indication that maybe the pilot is totally unresponsive medically or passed away or somehow injured. i don't think cuba will necessarily try to shoot it down since it's such a small aircraft bu but they'll certainly be

monitoring it. the other thing is it could try to land in cuba and somebody could have tried to hijack the small plane to get to cuba. >> do you think the fact it's diverted into cuban air space suggests that's a real credible possibility? >> i really don't think that. you know, if you had not told me that the windows were frosted over, i would think of a lot of possibleities but really the thing that is generally associated with incapacitated crew is the kind of thing you have described because the windows will frost over if you don't have adequate pressurization and air, you know, breathable air in that airplane. and the likelihood that you can survive that is pretty slim. it's just a matter of minutes before you begin to go to sleep. >> we have a statement in just now from the faa. they say federal aviation air traffic controllers are tracking the aircraft flying at 25,000

feet southbound off the florida coast over the atlantic ocean. the pult hilot has not been responding to radio calls since 10:00 a.m. eastern time. it was headed to naples municipal airport in florida. the latest reporting is that norad has tweeted that the windows are in fact, frosted over, which our experts are suggesting suggests hypoxia and is an ill omen, perhaps for passengers an that jet. based an the capacity fuelwise of this aircraft, how long could it continue flying unattended? >> well, that's the question i can't answer because i don't know how -- he's overflown that by quite a bit so far. it's impossible for me to know that. i would say, however, it's highly possible that that airplane will just continue

right across cuban air space and over the ocean again. and then, of course, it's up to a lot of speculation about how soon it will run out of fuel. >> thank you jim tilmon and jim cavanaugh. we're following this breaking news situation. fighter jets dispatched by the norad forces as well as the faa, a fighter that afears have suggested windows suggesting there may be a hypoxia situation and that the passengers an board are not responsive. certainly they're not getting a response from the cockpit of that aircraft right now. i'm going to bring in jay blackmon. what does the current fact pattern suggest? >> if the pilot has been unresponsive since 10:00 a.m., you are looking at 2, almost 3 1/2 hours. the possibilities are many. the pilot could have had a medical emergency. it's not clear how many people are on board. hypoxia happens when a plane's

pressurization at altitude. if you don't go into oxygen you very quickly become unresponsive. this is a similar to an incident that happened that killed golfer payne stewart back in the '90s where the plane flew and flew until it finally crashed into a farm field. as i think you've reported, the fighters have broken off since they've entered cuban air space and as tilmon said earlier, this plane had enough fuel to get to florida and pilots always budget extra fuel in case of having to make an alternate landing or weather and having to fly around that. but it likely it is getting to the tale end of its fuel tank. >> how common -- you mentioned this one high-profile instance. how common is this depressurization and subsequent lack of oxygen? >> it's not uncommon but it's not very common. you don't often hear of hypoxia

incidents in commercial airliners. you don't hear of them very often either. if you realize that you are -- that you are having pressurization problem if you can bring the plane below 10,000 feet, it becomes breathable air. the air, the plane is not at a high -- significant high level of pressurization. often you will hear pressurization problems in commercial airlines and they just bring the plane down quickly and the passengers are completely fine. what happens in hypoxia, though, is that you, before you -- before you pass out, it becomes difficult to think. so that is -- that can be a big issue. a again, you dont know what happened here and you -- it will be interesting to find out when the fighters were up there, they saw -- if they did, in fact, see icing on the windshield, that would lead one to believe that

there was a pressurization issue. >> and that is, in fact, the reporting we're receiving now. thank you jay blackmon and all of our guests. we'll be following this breaking news closely. a small aircraft over the atlantic ocean, signs of depressurization and a lack of oxygen. our thoughts are with those passengers. we'll have much more up ahead. it's time for the "your business" entrepreneur of the week. ellen is the owner of the perennial gardener on main street in ft. collins, colorado. she says main street retail stores can succeed if they make shopping an exciting experience and offer a big selection of items customers didn't even know they wanted. for more watch "your business" sunday mornings on msnbc. if i can impart one lesson to a new business owner, it would be one thing i've learned is my philosophy is real simple american express open forum is an on-line community, that helps our members connect and share ideas

to make smart business decisions. if you mess up, fess up. be your partners best partner. we built it for our members, but it's open for everyone. there's not one way to do something. no details too small. american express open forum. this is what membership is. this is what membership does. ♪ ♪ ♪ eenie. meenie. miney. go. more adventures await in the seven-passenger lexus gx.

see your lexus dealer. that's the way i look at life. looking for something better. especially now that i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib, a type of irregular heartbeat, not caused by a heart valve problem. i was taking warfarin, but wondered if i kept digging, could i come up with something better. my doctor told me about eliquis... for three important reasons. one, in a clinical trial, eliquis was proven to reduce the risk of stroke better than warfarin. two, eliquis had less major bleeding than warfarin. and three, unlike warfarin, there's no routine blood testing. don't stop taking eliquis unless your doctor tells you to, as stopping increases your risk of having a stroke. eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. don't take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. while taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily and it may take longer than usual for any bleeding to stop. seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding,

like unusual bruising. eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. those three important reasons are why eliquis is a better find for me. ask your doctor today if eliquis is right for you. welcome back. we're following breaking news right now. we have fighter jets dispatched by norad following a small aircraft over the atlantic ocean that's been unresponsive since 10:00 a.m. eastern time according to the faa which is also following this situation. norad reported that people an the plane haven't responded to any attempts to communicate and said the situation may involve hypoxia. that's a low level of oxygen after depressurization. a tweet from norad just moments ago says unresponsive aircraft has also entered cuban air space. norad fighters have, therefore, broke en off their trail.

we're continuing to follow that flight path. greg fife is a former ntsb investigator. what comes next in the response from these aerospace organizations that are following this plane? how do they deal with this issue of this plane being apparently over cuba from the images we're seeing now? >> really, the big thing now is just wait and see. they really can't do anything in this post-9/11 era, of course, there's always been the discussion about whether or not this aircraft poses a threat. and if it continues, if it has enough fuel to continue over the -- at least the cuban mainland and get back over the ocean, they may just follow it and wait for it to run out of gas like we've seen in other aircrafts like payne stewart, the famous golfer involved with a learjet whose crew suffered hypoxia and, in fact, there was a similar event just last week with a cirrus sr-22 supposed to land at manassas, virginia, and

failed to land. they scrambled fighters and followed the airplane until it ran out of gas and crashed into the ocean. >> you mentioned other types of small planes that have encountered this type of problem. this is a sakata tbm-700. it was bound for naples florida. when you look at that particular type of aircraft, greg, how long could this craft potentially fly unattended? >> well, depending on the number of passengers that were on the aircraft and baggage because you'll determine your fuel load based on weight and balance. so given the fact they were going to rochester to naples basically n lly nonstop, it wou indicate he probably had or she -- we don't know who the pilot is -- had a full load of fuel. and aircraft again, not knowing

the winds aloft and those things, the airplane could continue conceivably for another 30 to 60 minutes. i mean, maybe even longer. again, it all depends an what kind of atmosphere conditions the airplane is encountering at 25,000 feet. >> we have a new piece of information just coming in over the wires. u.s. officials telling nbc news that the two f-15 air force planes that had been shadowing this small commercial plane showing an unresponsive pilot it seems looking through these windows that they are frosted and the passengers are unresponsive, those passengers following this have broken off contact and are no longer following it due to it being in cuban air space. the air force pilots could see the private pilot unconscious and slumped over inside the cockpit. that's the latest information we have. the officials are telling us that the plane is flying at 25,000 feet which is an altitude considered unusual at this point for that type of small commercial aircraft. a sakata pdm-700.

it's unclear if or why they would have set the auto pilot at 25,000 feet. what does it suggest that the auto pilot did in fact, set that height? >> well, i'm not sure where you are getting that information. this is a single engine turbo. >> that's the latest frommor pentagon correspondent. he's being told this from u.s. officials. >> okay. well, that's incorrect because this airplane being a single engine turbo propeller has a turbo engine. typically it can fly in the t t 20,000-foot range. that would be a normal altitude for this type of aircraft. other airplanes that are equipped with reciprocating engines wouldn't normally be that high. but this is a turbo prop. that would be a normal altitude for this type of airplane. >> okay. so potentially 25,000 feet actually a normal altitude. we'll be following up an that n watching it closely. the other contentious issue, whether they saw frost on these

windows which would suggest hypoxia. that's not something the officials we're talking to could confirm at this point. we're also not able to confirm the number of passengers an the plane. that's something the faa manifest would tell us. we have jim miklaszewski with us at the pentagon. he's following this and the u.s. response to this very closely. jim, tell us the latest that you know. >> well, the latest that we know is that u.s. officials tell us that those two u.s. air force f-15s that had been shadowing this aircraft with its unresponsive pilot and crew has now broken off contact. that those two jets have peeled away. they are no longer following this airplane because it, in fact, was approaching and had entered cuban air space. so at this point, whatever radars may be tracking it, the u.s. air force pilots no longer have eyes on that aircraft. >> jim, what is this challenge

of it entering cuban air space trigger in terms of the reaction from the pentagon? what's the procedure? do you think high level conversations are now happening with the cubans? >> if there were high level conversations under way, perhaps they would have not had to break off. but they aren't allowed to enter cuban air space so they broke off. we have no word that any kind of negotiations are under way. and, quite frankly, when you think about how long that would take, it would probably take days. so that kind of thing would be futile at this point. and it's not like we have any kind of international agreements with cuba in terms of flying military aircraft over that air space. so they were forced to break off. >> jim, what about this report that while those jets were shadowing this aircraft they saw into the cockpit and saw that the pilot was slumped over and unresponsive? >> they did see that he was slumped over, according to the officials, which is a strong

indication, obviously, of hypoxia. no idea perhaps you know, but these officials had no clear idea how many other occupants were aboard the plane. there would have been an faa manifest before it took off from rochester, new york, en route originally toward naples, florida. but there is -- there are more people aboard that plane, we're told, than just the pilot himself. >> and what is the continuing role of both norad and the faa in following this situation, jim? >> they'll continue to track it as best they can with whatever radars they have. but again, the two aircraft are no longer in sight of the plane with its unresponsive crew. >> there are no reports that there's any sign of foul play or a terrorist threat at this point. but, jim, how much are you hearing concern about that possibility from the officials you are talking about? >> none. zero. >> so this could be just a depressurization due to some kind of a mechanical failure, obviously, our thoughts are with those passengers on board.

right now the pentagon is not confronting what could be a threat to any americans. >> no. unless you had a small plane like this loaded with explosives that flew into something. the idea that plane with an unresponsive pilot as it appears to be in this case, does not indicate or set off any alarm bells of a possible terrorist involvement. >> and, jim, what would the standard procedure be if this were not a situation where this aircraft had entered cuban air space? would it be standard procedure to just let the craft fly out its remaining fuel? >> if you think back to the payne stewart incident when the famous golf pro who was killed some time ago in a -- what appears to be a similar situation, where the crew and everybody on board went unconscious due to hypoxia, they were considering actually as it was flying over populated areas

of the united states of actually having a jet slowly descend on to the plane and shove its nose don so that the plane would intentional forced to crash, if in fact it was threatening a populated area. but at this point since the u.s. military is no longer in contact, it appears that it will most likely have to run out of fuel and then just plunge out of the sky, whether over cuba or into open waters is undetermined at this point. >> nbc's jim miklaszewski following the latest in the u.s. response to this situation. appreciate it, jim. >> all right. we've got former nbc aviation correspondent on the line, bob haeger. thank you for joining us. first of all, tell us what comes in the response both from the u.s. side and from the cubans as well. >> as others have said, there's not much to do now but just wait. it appears to be fairly straightforward, as everyone

said, especially with the report that the pilots from the chase planes had seen the pilot of the private plane slumped over, seen the frosted window, all that a clear sign that the oxygen system on board the plane had failed, that they had run out of oxygen and, sadly, the pilot and whoever else is onboard passed out. no chance at that altitude that they would still be alive. so nothing to do but wait for it to run out of fuel and crash into the ocean. >> bob, if this plane does crash in cuba, what's the next step in terms of recovering it. will there be an effort to recover it? >> well, i assume then it would become the cuban responsibility and the cubans would find the wreckage. i said ocean, i mean it could in fact crash over land. my hunch is it will go over cuba and crash into the ocean given the fuel supply, but who knows. but if it crashed on land, it

would probably be a cuban responsibility. again, fairly straightforward, go search the wreckage and so forth and there would have to be an investigation, or it would be useful to know what it was that went wrong on the plane that caused this oxygen deprivation. but so far it follows very closely, as others have said, the scenario that payne stewart crash back in 1999, which i remember i covered. we were on the air all day that day because the plane was under way for four hours. they had taken off from orlando, florida, supposed to go to dallas. after they got up to altitude, nobody heard from them again. again, like today, they sent up chase planes, fighter planes to see what was going on. the pilots looked out. they could see the windows frosted. they could see, again, the pilot in that payne stewart plane slumped over the controls, no sign of life. so the plane flew on for some four hours before it finally

crashed in a deserted field up near aberdeen, north dakota. so this is all very similar to that. again, they did a big investigation after that, and i don't think it was ever absolutely determined, but it was something to do with the oxygen system on board the plane and using bleed air off the engines and the replenishment of the air in the plane and something there had gone wrong and the oxygen was allowed to bleed out of the plane. and that kind of unconsciousness comes over you very slowly, as it happens. so often the crew is unable to respond. >> thank you so much, bob. we've got greg still on the line. greg, does the u.s. relationship with the cuban government complicate efforts of recovery? >> i think it does to an extent that we're going to have to, because it is an unregistered aircraft, technically it is registered here in the united

states, we always want to work with the foreign authority because it is not in the primacy rules of the ntsb so you have to coordinate. if the cubans say we don't have the resources, the manpower, the expertise, we'll allow you to investigate the accident, that agreement has to be hammered out before any action by the united states takes place. >> thank you so much. we've got on the phone now ted soliday, the executive director of the naples municipal airport. the flight path of this plane had it headed for that very airport. tell me, ted, when did you lose contact with the plane? >> i have to tell you i don't think they ever had contact with our airport or our tower. we heard first about it from the press, that it was missing or it was destined here and wasn't going to make it. we've now got it up on radar, but it's over cuba, as you know

yourself, and you really have the information we have. >> and that is consistent with all the reporting we have that this flight lost contact as early as 10:00 a.m. eastern time at which point these faa aircraft were dispatched to follow it. ted, tell us, do we know exactly how many people were on this flight? have you looked at the manifest? >> we don't have a manifest. since it's a general aviation aircraft, it doesn't fly on an manifest like a commercial carrier aircraft. we did not have even an inbound information. they usually let us know a couple hours before they get here. we saw it as it was coming to naples, but again, we didn't even show it had taken off when we started hearing the information from the press. >> and do you know at least typically how many passengers a sicotta tbm 700 would have. >> it's a six-passenger aircraft counting the pilot, so it's a pretty small aircraft, a single

engine. it is a very nice aircraft, it's a turbo prop. you know, it can go up to 25,000 feet. it is pressurized. that's a nice little airplane. but i have no idea of who and how many or anything like that. >> ted soliday, executive director of the naples municipal airport where this aircraft was headed. thank you so much, sir. thank you to you watching at home. we are following this situation, breaking news. a small aircraft now entering cuban aircraft. therefore u.s. aircraft that have been following it have broken off their trailing efforts. a small aircraft, up to six people on board potentially. our thoughts are this those passengers. that wraps up today's rf daily. "the reid report" is up next. she'll have much more on this. plan that's why we switched to charmin ultra mega roll. it's charmin quality and long lasting. with more go's per roll, it pays to use charmin ultra mega roll. charmin ultra mega roll is 75% more absorbent

so you can use less with every go. plus it even lasts longer than the leading thousand sheet brand. for us, mega roll equals mega value. cha-ching! we all go. why not enjoy the go with charmin ultra mega roll?

♪ fill their bowl with the meaty tastes they're looking for, with friskies grillers. tender meaty pieces and crunchy bites. in delicious chicken, beef, turkey, and garden veggie flavors. friskies grillers. . breaking news now involving a plane whose pilots aren't responding to air traffic control. two fighter jets were scrambled to investigate the plane that

was flying over the atlantic ocean. the plane is a socotta tbf-700. it left new york bound for naples, florida. the passengers on board haven't responded to several reports to communicate. once the plane entered cuban airspace, the fighter jets were pulled. joining me is nbc's tom costello and on the phone is former pilot, jim tillman. tom, what, if anything, do we know about the plane, its make, who owns it? >> well, there's a lot of speculation about who owns it. at the moment i'm going to refrain from getting into that. this flight left rochester this morning headed to naples. the faa says they have not had any radio contact with this plane since 10:00 a.m. it was bound for naples. as you might expect, it had enough fuel to get there we would imagine and then some, as you see in most cases. but this plane has now traversed the better part or most of cuba