germanwings flight 9525. the headlines germanwings pilot was locked out of cockpit before crash in france. the times details what the cockpit voice recorder captured in the final moments before the jet crashed. the official describes hearing a very smooth very cool conversation between the pilots during the early part of the flight before there is an indication that one of the pilots left the cockpit and could not reenter. the investigator says quote, the guy outside is knocking lightly on the door and there is no answer. then the source describes hearing louder knocks saying quote, you can hear he is trying to smash the door down but still no answer. the official goes onto say, coat, we don't know yet the reason why one went out but what is sure at the end of the flight the other pilot is alone and does not open the door. joining us now. faa licensed dmer shl pilot, the founder of the investigation and

consultation firm roman and associates. what do you make of the report that the pilot was locked out of the cockpit and under what circumstances could that happen? >> you know this is a remarkable development. and it has precedent. there are several cases in which foreign airlines have had the captain or the co-pilot lock the other crew member out of the cockpit, and that has occurred mostly in africa and one was a suicide. one was a crew hijacking, and they successfully locked the other crew member out. in one instance the aircraft was lost. however, i've been revealing the technical manual for this plane. and they have a reasonably new cockpit door mechanism. first, the cockpit door is bullet proof as you know. it's also grenade proof.

the co-pilot in this or the kamten inkamt captain in this situation, whenever was locked outside, cannot break it down. there's no way for that to hatch. there is a key pad to untlok triple locking mechanism that that door has. however, the pilot in the cockpit can override that panel and lock the crew member out. so whether or not this was intentional or the crew member on the flight deck was incapacitated with some type of medical condition, that still remains a mystery. >> and we know that the casing from the second flight recorder has been found but the memory card with the critical information about the flight is still missing. if the two are separated, what are the chances of actually retrieving what's on the that card? >> in the past the chances would have been low because the flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders were analog.

these are the new digital flight recorders, so i think the chances are a lot better. this was a very high speed impact. as we can discern from the type of the debris field that we see. when that aircraft begins to impact the ground and if we think about it in millisecond time, as the nose of the aircraft begins to impact the ground that debris that's created by the front of the aircraft breaking up actually ricochets off of the terrain and strikes the rest of the aircraft as it continues into the terrain. so it sounds to me like this flight data recorder suffered the brunt of the impact and the casing was separated from the internal components. even if the internal components are damaged, forensic technicians will probably be successful in removing most if not all of the data. >> great information.

thank you for being here and we'll see you again coming up on "morning joe." >> that new york times report comes at the search for remains continues and as new details emerge about the lives lost. here's our global correspondent bill kneely with more. >> reporter: it's difficult and dangerous to get to the wreckage. searchers are going in. helicopters can't land. and smoldering debris. the plane is barely identifiable. some windows here a tire there. the wings and cockpit in a thousand pieces. the names of many on board have emerged. three americans died. two of them identified as emily selke, and her mother yvonne from virginia. friends said they would also remember emily with a smile on her face. >> there definitely will be a hole in our church community and in the community at large.

>> at the german school that lost 16 teenage students and two teachers numb shock. hundreds of troops and police are ready to join the search but as we discovered access to the remote site miles from any road is almost impossible. as well as the snow and ice, those mountain sides aren't stable for searchers, for anyone this is dangerous. this operation to first find and then recover bodies and debris won't just take days. it'll take weeks. there were moments of silence from the colleagues of the flight crew at dusseldorf and barcelona airports. from leaders who flew over the crash site and from stunned locals. silence interrupted only by the harrowing search of the helicopters. >> and we'll have much more on the crash coming up on "morning joe." now to yemen which appears to be

on the brink of an all-out silver war. the whereabouts of the country's leader are unknown. he fled his home by hoet. the houthis are offering a $100,000 for his capture and now they are in control of the country's airport. iran is widely believed to be supporting the rebels in their attempt to seize control of yemen. the saudi ambassador to the u.s. says they had no choice but to begin aircrafts. >> this is always the last resort and it is what reluck that night that we took this step rather than engage in a peaceful transition to a stable and democratic yemen. they have always chosen the path of violence. we will do whatever it takes in order to protect the government of yemen from falling and from facing any dangers from outside militia. >> several other countries are vowing to protect yemen including egypt, kuwait and the

united arab emirates. >> the crisis is leading to growing questions about white house claims that yemen is a success story in the fight against terrorism. the battle to defeat islamic state militants has entered a new phase this morning. the u.s. is conducting air strikes in the key city of te crete. there were more than a doesen air strikes. targets included a wear house. iraq asked the u.s. to begin the strikes. iran was initially helping iraqi forces to help remain control the city from isis but iraq and the pentagon admitted that effort stalled. it could impact the strategy to try and regain the control of mosul. meanwhile the boarder with jordan. they're in control of a government stronghold after four days of clashes.

the rebels had help the nus ra front and isis is claiming credit for an talk in libya. one of the attacks was a car bombing in benghazi which killed 12 people. the u.s. army sergeant who vanished from his post is now being charged with desertion and endangering american troops. bowe bergdahl was held in captivity for five years before being released last year involving tex change of five senior taliban commanders from guantanamo bay. >> reporter: nearly six years ago bowe bergdahl walked off his outpost and into the hands of the taliban. he was charged with desertion. >> desertion with intent to

shirk duty. >> reporter: he also faces a second more serious charge of endangering his fellow soldiers. maximum penalty life in prison. >> i think it's he's very lucky that they're not talking about firing squad and death penalty for him. >> reporter: during his five years in cap tift he appeared in hostage videos forced to condemn the war in afghanistan. >> you're not fighting stupid people. you're fighting very smart people who know exactly how to kill us. >> reporter: in may of last year he was released in a controversial prisoner swap. the obama administration agreed to release five high value prisons from guantanamo bay in exchange for the soldier. upon his release his parents appeared in the rose garden with president obama. little comfort to theparents to

lost their son and claim he was killed while searching for bergdahl. >> he's not a hero. he left his post in war. >> senior defense officials tell us it's likely bergdahl will be offered a plea bargain to avoid jail time. let's turn to business. stocks fell across the board for a third day wednesday falling back into the red for the year. the dow jones dropped nearly 300 points. overseas saudi arabian air strikes in yemen are causing a surge in oil prices. could we see a spike in u.s. gas prices as a result of the escalating conflict? >> reporter: we could, but many analysts are telling us this morning that the spike in oil prices we saw at $3 per barrel

jump in crude and prices overnight, that could be very short-lived because yemen is not a big oil producer per se. there is a little bit of lmg in oil production but it isn't a big player. that means the supply concerns that we have over the last couple of months which have driven down the oil price so much, i think they're going to take center stage once again but we did see a little bit of a strike in yesterday's trading session and you also mentioned the markets overall. while we saw the nasdaq slumping it saw its almost biggest decline in one year. the biotech drove the declines. no specific reason there. what we're seeing as we're approaching the end of the quarter is that investors are selling stocks which have been seeing better pmpltserformance.

the dow has also fallen. >> one more question. apple and beats are collaborating again on a streaming music service. what does this entail and how will it affect competitors? >> that's a really interesting question this morning. now, we know that apple bought beats for $3 million last year and according to "the new york times" they are now working together on apple's own subscription streaming service. they're saying they're planning to enhance i tunes radio and access to new music albums before anyone else can see them. this could be a big shakeup. back to you. >> still ahead on "way too early," a series of tornadoes leave a trail of destruction? oklahoma. we go inside one of the twisters with storm chasers who stared it right in the eye. - by 2018, there will be more than 2 million jobs available in engineering, science, technology, arts, and math. but to develop the skills of tomorrow,

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>> honey, i'm act to go on the jimmy fallon show. i'll call you back when i'm done. okay? bye. all right, mitt. one last look before show time. >> looking good mitt man. ready for the big interview? >> actually, i'm a little bit interview. jimmy is probably going to ask me why i decided to not to run for president. what should i say? >> tell him you enjoy the freedom. you get to go on vacation whenever you want? >> aka, be president. >> ha ha ha. good one, me. >> well you know me. i love to laugh. ha ha ha ha. >> that's great. that was jimmy fallon and mitt romney. welcome to our coliseum where

sports get mauled. while we're waiting for the sweet sixteen to get started. here tied against murray state in the game's final seconds. >> here's freeman. he's got a shot. oh my god. oh my god. >> oh that buzzer beater gives odu the 72-69 victory. they advance to the tournament semi finals. great news to report. defensive tackle daughter is in remission. the four-year-old was given a 50/50 chance of survival when she was diagnosed with pediatric cancer. he made the announcement yesterday with a photo of his daughter and a caption that reads in part wrrkts quote june second was the day doctors walked into the waiting room to tell me my daughter had cancer. it was devastating. march 25th is feeling like the

best day of my life. >> an embarrassing moment for wisconsin basketball player when he forgot his microphone was hot at a press conference yesterday. take a look. >> god, she's beautiful. did you hear that? >> i heard that. >> all right. so we'll open it up to questions. >> and as we mentioned earlier, the first matchups in the ncaa tournament sweet 16 tipoff tonight. notre dame and 7-seeded wichita state and then wisconsin and north carolina. number one overall kentucky continues its pursuit of perfection against west virginia and last xavier against arizona. let's get a check on your weather with our nbc meteorologist. i know you're following the tornadoes. >> absolutely. it was quite a day yesterday with severe weather an this is

the first major outbreak of the season and we did have a lot of storm reports yesterday coming in through oklahoma and arkansas. eight tornadoes reported. we had one fatality in the tulsa area. the good thing with this is this is all associated with the cold front that pushing east. the severe weather threat has ended. still pretty good storms in the cincinnati area right now. it is still a tough go with morning commute with rain and lightning and thunder. the front advances to the east so we will see a rainy day along the east coast. severe weather not expected. if we do see some strong storms the best chance is from north carolina up through the mid atlantic later this afternoon. people a little bit of an eye to the sky. otherwise, temperatures are going to be pretty mild ahead of this front, and that will be nice. even though it's rainy, it will be somewhat warm here with 62 in new york. look to the west.

once that front comes through we'll cool off. by friday it's back to normal temperatures more like reality in new york. 51. chicago tomorrow 30 degrees with sun shine. the cold does return. back to you. >> thanks. coming up the betweenny verse gets rocked with news that one direction is now down a member. why zain left and what the other members have to say about the departure. ♪ ♪ ♪ first impressions are important. you've got to make every second count. banking designed for the way you live your life. so you can welcome your family home... for the first time.

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mornings headlines. >> zayn malik announced he was leaving the band. this comes near lay week after he pulled out of the world tower because of stress. he explains i want to be a normal 22-year-old who is able to relax and have private time out of the spotlight. one direction has sold nearly 6.5 billion albums pulling in $290 million worldwide. it is all about the big mac lifestyle. at least mcdojds sweden thinks so. they launched a lifestyle

fashion. a big mac shop where as the name suggests every item has big maces on it. the big mac collection was part of a global day called i'm loving it. it called for 24 marketing stunts in 24 days. the products are for sale in sweden and the best part 100% of the products go to the ronald mcdonald house charities. >> i'll take the jacket if they do it in slim fit. >> slim fit. with a big mac tie. it's making me hungry. it may be the most interesting way to cheat the car pool rule. one driver was caught using a cut out from the most interesting man in the world. he used it as his plus one to

use the car pool lane. he said he is my best friend. and he received $124 fine and a twitter shaming by the washington state control. that is it. i don't know if that's sad or what that is. >> it's sad and he deserved that ticket an the shaming, i think. thanks. plooe . mika is here with a look ahead. >> new information on the crash of germanwings flight. what is pilot locked out of the cockpit before the plane slammed into a mountain? we're live in the french alps as investigators analyze the mangled black box hoping to unlock the mystery. and andrea mitchel joins us with major developments from the middle east and air strikes against isis and iraq while saudi arabia goes on the offensive in yemen. but with the president in full

retreat, is the obama prepared to do more? we'll ask white house press secretary when he joins us live onset. also on the guest list this morning, senator box corker and general barry mccaffery weighs in on the military's decision to charge bowe bergdahl with desertion. that and much more coming up next on "morning joe" live from washington. [chorus singings:] ♪ roundup ♪ i'm the protector of my patio. killing weeds where they grow. a barrier forms so weeds can't appear - serious weed prevention up to a year. [chorus singings:] ♪ roundup max control 365 ♪ so i'm fighting weeds on opening day and preventing weeds while i get away. weeds stay dead as we carve this beast, and they still aren't back when i cook this feast. [chorus singings:] ♪ roundup max control 365 ♪ one more time let me make it clear. with no more weeds it's your year.

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>> good morning. and welcome to "morning joe." we're live in washington d.c. this morning for the very latest on a number of major stories unfolding right now. we have full analyst of the shocking reports that came back last night. we have top aviation experts

with us. also the volatile middle east got much more complicated this morning. u.s. complicated this morning. u.s. air strikes helping iranian-backed militias in iraq at the same time the u.s. is supporting saudi arabia air strikes against iranian-backed rebels in yemen. we'll get the latest white house reaction from josh earnest. plus the latest reporting from nbc news correspondent andrea mitchell, both here onset in washington. also nbc's pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski live with new details of the desertion charges against sergeant bo bergdahl with the story he first breaux two months ago. we have the "huffington post" sam stein and senior white house correspondent chris jansing with us. pulitzer prize winner