night, 66 souls on board, three of them were children. the lion's share were from egypt, 15 from france, no americans were on board. we'll continue our special coverage in just a bit, this is msnbc. the thing we're covering tonight is obviously the major story not only in the united states but around the globe about this crash of the egyptair flight. in the last year there have been two instances where islamic terror groups have claimed credit for exploding a bomb on board a passenger plane. this one was an airbus a320 plane which had the capacity to seat 220 people. this plane was nowhere near full on the day it was bombed. it was bombed on february 2nd of this year. there were 81 people on board including the bomber who was apparently given the bomb he exploded on board the plane when

he was inside the airport in somalia. this is footage from inside of the airport in what it appears to show is the bomb disguised as a laptop or at least something that would fit into a laptop case being given to the passenger inside the somali airport which appeared to be airport workers. he got on board the plane. it was an air bus a 321. it was supposed to be a two hour flight but 20 minutes into the flight when the plane was at 14,000 feet, that bomb, which that terrorist had brought on board the plane, the bomb went off and the bomb was a success. it was not a dud. it exploded, but the explosion on board that plane was also basically a miracle because as you can see in some of the images, what that bomb did was blow a hole in the lodge lodge

of the plane that was just big enough to suck the bomber out of that air craft and send him to his death but it was not such a massive hole that the plane completely broke apart and the heroic work of the crew on flight 159 back in february, the heroic pilot and co-pilot of the air craft, they were able to safely land that plane even with that huge hole in the fusilage. the bomber was killed but no one else was killed or even injured. that is one of the two in the past year where islamic terrorists have been able to get a bomb on board a plane and explode it. that was one of the two. that was february of this year. the other one was far more deadly. and interestingly it was also an airbus. it was an airbus a-321. the same that was bombed in somalia. this other time in the past year when islamic terror groups have been able to get a bomb on board, this time it was a chartered passenger flight. it was flying from a resort city in egypt called sharm el sheikh

back to spartanburg in russia. an isis affiliated terrorist group in the sinai peninsula in egypt claimed credit for smuggling a bomb on board that plane. when that bomb exploded, it didn't take that air craft all the way down. all 224 people were killed when the bomb blew up. it is this past october. october 2015. so the somali incident was february of this year. the egypt crash over the sinai was last october. now, obviously you can go further back in time to find more instances of bombed flights and terrorists targeting passenger airliners but even if you just look at the two instances we have had in the past year, it is clear that international terrorist groups are actively targeting passenger airlines with bombs. i mean, despite heightened aviation security in the west and in the world, it they have been able to explode bombs on

board passenger air craft. i mean, even more recently than those incidents. in march there was another incident on board a passenger plane. an incident of the kind that seems like it shouldn't be possible that this happens anymore but in march of this year it was a short hop egyptair flight from alexandria could cairo. landing in another city inside egypt. a man was somehow able to hijack that plane in march, diverted the course from egypt to cypress after he smuggled on board something he claimed was an explosives belt. the bomb that he smuggled on board, it turned out to be fake. obviously shae the guy on the left there, not the guy on the right. but it seemed real enough to people on board the plane to authorities at the time that he

was able to diversity the air craft, forced an hours long stand off with authorities, now, in that instance, you see the guy coming out of the window at the front of the plane? in that instance, the man was said to be either mentally ill or motivated by personal dispute. it doesn't seem to have been international terrorism. how did he pull off that kind of hijacking in egypt of all places? this happened in march. this happened less than six months after 224 people got killed in egyptian air space after taking off from an egypt airport. so, if you are inclined to worry about aviation security, there are places in the world there are instances just over the past year that give good reason to worry about aviation security. if you are inclined to worry about international terrorists targeting passenger flights, there is direct evidence that they have proven not just intention but also the capability to do that, at least some places in the world. that said, even with being fully aware of those kinds of difficult truths, we can't say tonight for certain that that is what happened to egyptair flight 804. if you've been dipping in and out of this news together about

egyptair flight 804, a lot of what you heard earlier in the day has been disproven or retracted. there have been reported that wreckage has been found. we're told that it has definitely not been found. there were reports earlier today that terrorist groups were claiming responsibility for downing this plane. we're told that none of the claims of responsibility thus far at least are seen as particularly credible. we'll have more on that in the show later on tonight. now, further on the terrorism angle there, were reports today that terrorist sympathizers online were circulating pictures of the bomb that must have been used to take down egyptair flight 804, well, now it is clear to us that the bomb photos circulating online during the course of the day were mostly pictures of the type of soda can bomb that was used to take down that sharm el sheikh plane in october. it has nothing to do with today. for whatever reason, plane crashes and plane crashes disappearing, they do not bring

out the best in data driven journalism and information driven discussion. we end up, whenever something like this happens, we end up with way more miss information than real information especially in the first few days. but here is what we do know for sure right now. this plane it is an airbus a320. took off from paris last night after 11:00 p.m. local time it was bound for cairo. it should have been a four hour flight. there does not seem to be anything suspicious about the plane itself. it was a 13-year-old airbus a320. they're expected in the commercial life to last 30 or 40 years so this was basically still a young plane. the pilot was 36 years old. the co-pilot was 24 years old. between them, they had nearly 10,000 hours of flight time. egyptair released their full names. said that the pilot and co-pilot. they both passed background checks and security screenings for the airport including the crew and three air marshals on

board. there were a total of 66 people on board the plane all together. u.s. intelligence agencies are among the investigators who have looked into the passenger manifest. at least from an american perspective, we're told none of the passengers were listed on any american terrorist watch lists. but after an unremarkable, totally normal start to the flight, about 30 minutes before that flight was due to land in cairo, it was about 11 and a half miles into egyptian air space, something happened that has not been explained. the greek government says on their military radar, they saw the plane suddenly make a 90 degree turn to the left and then just as suddenly it circled 360 degrees to the right. it then plunged from the cruising altitude of 37,000 feet down to 15,000 feet down to 10,000 feet down to 9,000 feet and then it dropped off the radar and despite all of the single source discredited reporting today, what i just described to you about what we know about this flight is literally all that we know for

sure about this flight. and yes it could have been some sort of catastrophic structural or mechanical failure, although that is almost unheard of on big passenger jetliners these days. in fact, in all of 2015, all of last year there, was not a single fatality reported anywhere in the world on a passenger jetliner that was attributed to a malfunction of the plane or bad weather or any kind of simple, noncriminal pilot air. it doesn't mean it couldn't have happened in this egyptair flight today, but it does mean it would be very, very unusual if that is what happened. whatever happened to this flight could have been the result of some sort of intentional act. some sort of criminal act by one of the pilots, we have certainly seen that before although, again, there is no indication at this point at all that that might have been what happened with this egyptair flight.

it also of course could have been an act of terrorism. government officials in multiple countries and political candidates in our own have already suggested out loud that terrorism is the likely explanation for what happened. but in terms of what we know versus what we're guessing, we honestly can't say one way or the other. instead of adding to what might have happened here and what therefore mean, what i'm curious to know now is how we're going to find out the facts of what happened here. and basically how we're going to get from all of this to actual information. what happens next in terms of this investigation. we do know that this is an egyptair flight that appears to have disappeared in egyptair space. most of the people on board were egyptians. egypt will therefore be taking the lead in the investigation. the plane itself was built in france, the plane took off from france, after egypt, france is the country of citizenship for most of the people on board the plane. france will therefore also be intimately involved in the investigation. the investigation will be led by egypt and france. there is a quirk in international aviation crews so

the country where the engines of the plane were manufactured, there is a quirk in international aviation crews so the country where the engines of the plane were manufactured, they should be involved in the investigation of an aviation incident of this kind. in this case, that would be the united states of america because they were apparently pratt and whitney engines on board the airbus which are manufactured in the united states. the u.s. will presumably be involved in some way too. egypt is in the lead along with france. no wreckage has been found. what happens next? joining us now is someone who led crash investigations in the past. debra hearsman is director of the chair of the ntsb safety board. she is the now the ceo for the national council. >> thank you, rachel. >> what haps in the investigation here now? this far into an incident of this kind?

what is happening right now? >> so the investigators on the ground and the response agencies that are on the ground really in the first 24 hours, they're focusing on recovery, if there is any search and rescue to be done to focus on that, but it has been a long day for them so not much is happening tonight on the ground because it is probably the first opportunity they have to sleep but there are a lot of people doing work in the background to see who may have interacted with the crew or inspected the air craft or done any maintenance. there is a lot of pieces coming together. one of the most critical things that they need is they need those black boxes and they've got to identify the wreckage in order to get those. >> in terms of american involvement, i've heard it described in the past that the ntsb, u.s. authorities as investigators and names like

this have seen as the international gold standard, essentially seen as the best in the business and have set a lot of the standards for how all countries like to be able to investigate these things. that said, the u.s. will not be in the lead here. i've heard some discussion today that there may be tension between the egyptian authorities about allowing american investigators to play a significant role here because of past conflicts between the egyptians and the americans on incidents like this. can you shed any light on that? >> sure. there are long standing international protocols, they're established by the international civil aviation organization and it determines who leads the investigation. as you mentioned earlier, because this event occurred in egyptian air space, if it is on the land it is pretty clear that it is going to be led by the country where the event occurs, but if it is in the water, if it is in international waters there, are decisions that have to be made there. but if it is in egyptian air space, they'll take the lead. it is the country of origin where the air craft is made.

it is the country of origin where the air craft is made. the french have a role in the investigation because they manufactured the air craft. so they're the state of design and state of manufacturer, that being said, the french are really good at this. behind the united states, i would say the french do as many investigations as we do of large commercial air craft. the u.s. has boeing and the french have air bus. and so they're the big participants in the large commercial air craft investigations. you mentioned the pratt and whitney engines. if you have parts of the air craft, major parts of the air craft, and there probably are other parts, whether it is the avionics or other equipment that could have been manufactured in the united states, those representatives through the ntsb lend assistance. >> deborah hearseman.

former chair of the ntsb, thanks for helping us understand this. i know it is early days of the investigation. people with your expertise are-tell us what this all means. the people investigating what happened to egyptair 804 obviously have a long way to go. we'll be looking at one key question in the investigation. a little later on in the show, and the questions about terrorism. we'll be looking at a surprise development in the presidential race. possibly a game changer from an unexpected source. a lot going on. we have a big show for you tonight. tonight. stay with us.ok... ...another anti-wrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair works... ...in one week. with the... fastest retinol formula available. it's clinically proven to work on fine lines and... ...even deep wrinkles. "one week?

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june 7th, 2016 will be the california primary. this year, is that when you, if you're ahead in the vote, if you're ahead in pledged delegates. >> i am ahead in the vote,

rachel! i'm way ahead in the vote! now, wait a minute. i have the greatest respect for senator sanders but really, what he and his supporters are now saying just doesn't add up! >> now we know. turns out it wasn't just me she was annoyed with. turns out former secretary of state hillary clinton feels that same way about the same issue when other people ask her about it as well. >> so you get into the general election, if you're the no. am nee. >> i will be the nominee for my party, chris. that is already done in effect. there is no way i won't be. >> hillary clinton today interjecting on cnn to say if? if? there is no way. she doesn't end up not being the nominee of the democratic party this year. that is clearly the view for hillary clinton it has been for some time. it is the view of the campaign. that is the view of observers of

this race just looking at the math and the fact that secretary clinton has already sewn 96% of the delegates she needs to win the nomination at this point. the bernie sanders campaign for sure is not there yet and today they put out this statement criticizing secretary clintoon for the remark on cnn. we expect voters in the remaining eight contests will disagree. despite hillary clinton's lead in her race against bernie sanders, likely insurmountable lead. they're stopping og donald trump full stop means it is where the drama is in the presidential politics, at least in the last few weeks. today in all of the international news, today there was a fascinating and unexpected little bomb shell that just blew up on what used to be the

political margins, but now this year might end up being the political main stage and that big surprise development today is the main political story of the night and that is next. stay with us.

that is interesting in its own right. it is also potentially huge if gary johnson does get the libertarian nomination and can build on the 10% support even just a little bit and that is because the rules for the general election debates say that a third party candidate can qualify to be in those debates right up there with donald trump and hillary clinton if that candidate hits 15% in five national polls. it is a little more complicated than that it is a little more specific than that but that is basically it. you have to be polling at 15 impersonation wide to get into the presidential debates. gary johnson is already apparently polling at 10 impersonation wide. how hard would it be to get to 15? so you combine all of those things together, right? the unusual appetite on the right for a nontrump option. the libertarian party all but assuredly having 50 state ballot access already this year. huge donors like the koch brotherbeing uninterested in supporting donald trump but being supportive of the libertarian party in the past. david koch having, in fact, run himself on the libertarian party in the past. i mean, you combine all of the factors and it starts to feel like maybe this libertarian party option this year, maybe it could be a bigger deal than it usually is. if only the libertarian party this year, with all of the variables at work, if only the party could get a little less fringe, right if they could get a little closer tomorrow what establishment republicans are comfortable with. if only they could make themselves more republican-ish than they usually are. particularly if they could do that with someone who seems electorally viable. today, gary johnson announced if he gets the libertarian nomination for president which is likely to do. he would like his running mate to be bill weld. bill weld, the guy who won all

but six towns in massachusetts when he ran for reelection there in the deep blue state as a fiscally conservative libel republican. bill weld apparently agreed to be gary johnson's running mate if the libertarian party selects them at the national convention. bill weld running on the libertarian ticket with gary johnson. this is like if you've been playing adult pick up soccer after work and it is fine and it keeps you in shape but you just found out that david beckham is joining your team. david beckham is retired and has a modelling career. it is like he is a full time dad but shae still david freaking beckham. it makes you feel differently about your team and about your chances in pick up soccer playing against other teams. there was a brief flurry of

poorly sourced excitement at a conservative website called the daily caller when they suggested the koch brothers were planning to support gary johnson and bill weld until an effort. they have denied they have made any such commitment but if there that were to come to pass which is not inconceinconceivable. then this third party prospect which is somewhere between a joke and a fantasy for years now, this year, maybe this is a year it might be a real thing. in case you were feeling like this year would be boring. the explosives were hidden in a pick-up truck filled with fruits and vegetables. a car bomb detonated around 10:00 a.m. wednesday morning killed 70 people.

the explosives were hidden in a pick-up truck filled with fruits and vegetables. a car bomb detonated around 10:00 a.m. wednesday morning killed 70 people. wounded 87. isis claimed responsibility. later that same day, wednesday afternoon, two more bombings. one suicide bombing, one car bomb, both at police check points, another 26 people killed on top of the 70 that had been killed that morning. again, isis claimed responsibility. four days later on sunday, this weekend it was a complex attack on a gas plant. at 6:00 a.m., three car bombs exploded at the front gate. after the car bombs, six men wearing explosive belts stormed into the plant and blew up the

gas tanks which created this huge fire ball. 14 people killed, including five police officers in that attack. again, isis claimed responsibility. then two days later, on tuesday this week, it was four more attacks all in one day. one suicide bomb in the middle of an outdoor market. 39 people killed. isis claimed responsibility. before the end of that same day on tuesday, they hit two more markets and a crowded restaurant. seven people killed at the restaurant. 33 people killed at the other two markets. that is just in the past week all in iraq. isis claiming responsibility for most of those attacks. more than 200 people killed in the past week. relentless, hugely bloody and not much western news coverage. the way you get a lot of western news coverage is some kind of spectacular attack. one preferably that touches the west, an international incident

like maybe bringing down a plane. as we mentioned earlier in the show, that is what an isis affiliate claimed credit for in october when they detonated a bomb on a russian charter jet killing all 224 people on board. one thing that seems important about that isis attack, now, in metro inspect is that isis claimed responsibility for that bomb on board that plane the same day that plane crashed. that crash over egypt, the one in october, that crash was in the morning. by that afternoon of the same day, isis was claiming credit. they were pub sizing it. they were talking about it on isis radio. today p after another plane disappeared in egyptian air space, the egyptair flight. talk turned quickly to the possibility that isis was again responsible for this. well, one very good reporter who follows isis closely makes a habit of listening to isis

multilingual daily news bulletin. . that reporter who listens to that every day, rukmini callimachi of the new york stiemz. isis today made no mention of that plane. they did not mention the plane in the isis wire service where they post on the recent activities. despite all of the speculation, we honestly do not know what happened to the egyptair flight. but does what we know about isis and al qaeda and how they operate and how they communicate, does that tell us anything important about whether they could have done this? we've got more on that specifically ahead. stay with us.

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are you loving your numbers? there's only one invokana®. ask your doctor about it by name. what just happened about 12 hours ago? a plane got blown out of the sky. if anything, if anybody thinks it wasn't blown out of the sky, you're 100 % wrong, folks, okay? >> it does appear it was an act of terrorism. the investigation will have to determine. >> that is what two out of the three major candidates are saying about the disappearance of the egyptair jetliner lost today. that is how they are characterizing it.

also consider reporting from the new york times beat reporter essentially on isis and al qaeda who says today we have a situation where a plane went missing and officials are suggesting terrorism. as for isis, though, zippo. no official confirmation. zippo. joining us now is rukmini callimachi, normal times correspondent. thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me again. >> isis has a daily news bulletin, a wire service thing and a radio show? >> they have their own radio show and they put out a daily news summary. and what is interesting here is that after every other major attack that we've seen in certainly in europe but also in iraq, they always claim it and they claim it quite quickly, usually within hours or within a couple of days. we're now very much on the outer edges of that. they haven't claimed this attack on any of their forums, not on the radio station, not on their ap wire service, if you will. not on the media outlets and so it is quite puzzling.

>> have you ever seen an attack that was attributed to them with some authority that seemed to be them that they didn't claim? >> the only ones we didn't see are in turkey. there are several major suicide attacks in turkey and officials claimed it is isis. isis has not claimed them but the reasoning there is that isis really needs turkey. they need to have the borders not be completely shut down. they need, it is their base if you will. >> their messaging may be different around turkey. >> that is the theory. certainly for something like this, which would, if this is an act of terror as officials are implying. it would very much shake the confidence of europe. this is a plane that departed from charles de gaulle airport only months of the november 13th attacks. it should be on heightened alert. if there was an explosive on board or a terrorist on board, how did that lapse happen? >> we have seen some reporting

today, and i've been sort of cautioning over the course of this hour in terms of what has been out there today about the discussion. there have been some claims of responsibility or reported claims of responsibility about this incident. are any of them considered to be credible. >> none are credible. the claims of responsibility that are prop debated on twitter are allegedly from the wire service. i am on the telegram channel which is an app where they propegate the information. there has been nothing on there and other analysts have not seen it either. so you know, you know how these things go out there, retweeted, et cetera, as far as i think credible sources are concerned there, is no claim of responsibility by isis yet. >> are they cheering for it? applauding that it happened? >> that is also the strange thing. there has been a little bit of fan boy, you know, cheering, certainly last night right after

the news broke, but very little. very, very little. immediately after the november 13th attacks, hours before, the claim of responsibility came, they were all over social media applauding this incident and here, there is a silence not only from the official wing of isis but also the sympathizers are remarkably quiet and honestly, we don't know what to make of it. one theory is that isis was not involved. >> is that, i mean, at this point, we still, like with all of rest of it, we just need more information. >> we do, we do. it could be another terrorist group. obviously al qaeda is the most likely to be in that category but al qaeda is very much on the run right now. literally a few weeks ago, they lost their seat in southern yemen, aqap, they were considered to be the one that is likely to carry out an attack on a commercial flight. so it would be curious that it would be al qaeda.

>> it sounds like obviously anybody jumping to conclusions without knowing what happened here is speaking out of turn but it sounds like the terrorism suppositions right now are early. >> indeed. >> even if they end up being born out. >> thank you for being our visitor from the fact based world. it is good to have you here. i appreciate it. she is a new york times correspondent that focuses on isis and al qaeda. you should read everything she writes. google alert. it is a simple technology. i'll show you how later. we'll be right back.

under ordinary >> the time of this man's indictment yesterday, he was an elected delegate, scheduled too be at this summer's national convention as a delegate for donald trump.

that gig is apparently over for him. the trump campaign says we strongly condemn these allegations, and he will be replaced immediately. every indictment of every one of their delegates. white nationalist named william johnson ahead of the american freedom party. jones reported on the white nationalist back ground and that he was selected as an official delegate. severed ties with him. and said it was a database error.

the white nationalist party posted this on their face book page. here is what they don't know, we have more delegates. today, william johnson told jones he knows of at least one other freedom party member, from an eastern state, that will attend the republican convention, as a quote honorary delegate. additional for now, the delegates want to remain anon mouse, and will motivate other white nationalists to express

their views. he said, talk to me in eight months, particular more will be out. particularly if trump is elected. >> total freaking racist nonsense. or maybe they will come out of the woods work now. watch this space.

former speaker of the house, sentenced a few weeks ago to prison. pled guilty to hush money,denny hastert admitted he mistreated multiple boys when he was working as a wrestling coach in the 1970s. he is to report june 22nd, he will join the long list of congressional alumni who have spent time in prison. michael brim, seven months in pennsylvania, in the correctional institute. rick remsy is serving his sentence at the institute near morgantown, west virginia. and jessie jr.,in alabama.

we don't know where speaker hastert is going to end up. he has been seriously ill, it may be a consideration. likely, he will be incarcerated in a federal prison hospital in minnesota. that was not in the judge's order. the judge's order said that the speak isser to surrender to the designated institution on june 22nd by 2:00. we learned that federal inmate number for one of the highest ranking officials to be imprisoned for anything. his number will be 47991-424. a/k/amr. speaker. the washington post, broken news in the last hour, the fight

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between hillary clinton and bernie sanders, and the question of how the democratic national primary is going to end. the postis headlining that democratic national committee may be changing course, and offering bernie sanders concessions at the convention. specifically, what abbey philip and ann garren are saying, basically, the platform committee at the convention. a 15-person drafting committee for the platform. the washington post, reporting in the past hour, that dnc and the campaigns will reach a final agreement by the end of the week. sanders will be getting more from the democratic committee than they originally offered him. this is an effort to keep sanders inside the tent as this fight between him and hillary clinton and the democratic party

threatens to derail the democratic party, running against donald trump. that is news breaking. now, it is time for "the last it's friday, may 20th. right now on "first look" the latest details in the search for egyptair 804 as security is stepped up at the u.s. airports. trump says he knows what happened to the plane. and why are members of congress chanting shame shame shame? meet an american who was lured into the world of isis as a fighter. and good-bye to a storytelling legend. "first look" starts right now. good morning, everybody. thanks for joining us on a friday. i'm betty nguyen. french investigators have arrived in cairo as the search resumes