[ cheers and applause ] this is "nightline." >> tonight, cruise ship chaos. the luxury liner battered on the high seas as it barreled headfirst into a powerful storm. >> oh my god. >> the ship braving 30-foot waves, hurricane-force winds. 6,000 on board, some reporting injuries. >> we thought we were going to die. >> questions over the captain's controversial decision to set sail. plus the unabomber, the home-grown terrorist who evaded the fbi for 18 years until someone in his inner circle turned him in. for the first time on camera we hear from that woman. >> the phrase i used all the time is, we've got to start the killing. >> mommy.

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seconds. good evening. thanks for joining us. a dream vacation quickly turns into a nightmare for thousands of passengers on one of the

the luxury line over its way to the bahamas gets caught in a powerful storm. monster waves and hurricane-force winds battering the ship causing injuries and frayed nerves. just hours ago it docked safely back at home. now questions over why they set sail in the first place. here's abc's linsey davis. >> reporter: after four harrowing days at sea, the "anthem of the seas" finally made it back to shore. >> whoo-hoo! >> reporter: families waiting, cheering, welcoming their loved ones home. the 4,500 now sea-weary passengers -- >> glasses breaking everywhere. >> reporter: -- ready to be on dry land. >> worst experience. only the movies. >> reporter: the luxury cruise turned into a nightmare when the 1,100-foot boat battled 30-foot waves and hurricane-force winds gusting up to 120 miles per hour. ceilings came apart. vases destroyed.

panicked passengers crowded the stairs trying to get back to their rooms. once inside filming what was happening in their cabins. it was all captured in these dramatic videos recorded by passengers. >> oh my god. >> reporter: jacob eyebred watched as waved crashed against his window. >> we thought we were going to die. we all thought this was going to be it. >> reporter: he prepared for the worst. >> this felt like it was a disaster movie. one of those, i don't know, towering infernos. this was even crazier. i was living in this hollywood movie. >> it's probably the biggest scare that i've had so far in my life. >> reporter: we talked to shara strand via skype. she was so afraid she called her mother in case she didn't survive. >> just wanted to call and say i loved her. >> reporter: the harrowing ordeal played out on social media. some passengers reporting the ship listing at 45 degrees. >> trapped in our rooms. we can't leave. >> reporter: but now a lot of

peter alupa says he's furious they even set sail with the storm just off the coast. >> he was actually playing retrospect. magnitude of this storm. >> reporter: he says the boat wag listing so much his water. >> our portal was like a washing machine literally. we were under water on the third >> reporter: but the "anthem of the seas" captain said he didn't realize the magnitude of the storm ahead of time and he's now defending his decision to set sail with a storm brewing in the atlantic. >> the whole thing was no bigger than this. it was up here. and it just exploded. >> reporter: in a video broadcast internally to all 4,500 passengers' staterooms monday, captain clause andersen, who ordered everyone on board to stay in their rooms, says he's never experienced anything like it. >> honestly have not seen a low pressure that was not forecasted, anything near what

>> reporter: tonight the company apologized to its passengers. royal caribbean releasing a statement saying, our ship and our crew performed very well to weather. despite that fact the event, exceptional as it was, identified gaps in our planning system we are addressing. what happened this week showed that we need to do better. the terrifying ordeal aboard "the anthem of the seas" comes just ten months after the ship's maiden voyage. launched with much fanfare, the "anthem of the seas" is a state state-of-the-art ship, the third largest in the world. with all the attractions like bumper cars and indoor skydiving. the floating resort set sail last saturday from new jersey, headed for the bahamas. it got caught in the storm off the coast of south carolina next day. the storm was not a surprise, we saw it coming days in advance. even the national weather service put out a hurricane force wind warning 24 hours in advance. >> reporter: the storm suddenly

>> a lot of our maritime disasters throughout history have taken place during the winter. we get these massive, really intense cyclones that develop over the ocean in the winter months, nothing to be trifled with. >> reporter: the ship was forced to turn around and made its way slowly back to new york. royal caribbean says "anthem of the seas" didn't sustain any major damage in the storm. according to the cruise line, at least four people suffered minor injuries and the ntsb says it's currently considering an investigation. weather can be deadly on the high seas. the "el faro" said sail during hurricane joaquin. the storm battered the ship till it sank, killing all 33 people on board. this is the ntsb video of its final resting place three miles below the surface. the owner of the "el faro" said they fully supported the search and the investigation. it's not the only massive ship to be undone by weather. 30-foot rogue waves hit this

smashing through windows. a direct hit on unsuspecting diners. the terrifying wave killed two and injured 14 others. the company said the incident was unforeseen because the weather was not really that bad. and look at what happened on this ship during a bad storm off new zealand in 2008. everything that wasn't nailed down slid around out of control. 42 people were hurt, many with broken bones. the company said it was a rare occurrence that was fully investigated. then there was this cruise liner "oceanos" sinking off the coast of south africa in 1991 after rough weather and flooding left the ship adrift. all the passengers were evacuated by south african rescue helicopters before the ship went down. now back at port "anthem of the seas" passengers will get a full refund and 50% off of a future booking. it may not be enough for some. >> doesn't give you a lot of

the ocean for 12 or 15 hours with the wind and the waves. >> reporter: charlotte lipman's father asher treated her to the cruise for her 10th birthday. not the caribbean vacation they had in mind but one she'll be telling her friends about for a long time. >> the waves were almost crashing onto our terrace and we were on the eighth floor. the room basically tilted that way. even if you weren't moving you automatically -- like your body like fell. >> reporter: "anthem of the seas" has a sold-out eight-day cruise departing for bahamas on saturday. royal caribbean tells us they're planning to set sail this weekend as scheduled. for "nightline" i'm linsey davis in the new jersey. next, he terrorized the country for 18 years, evading capture by fbi and local authorities. you won't believe who finally turned in the unabomber. plus that family feud moment

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he was a feared and mysterious killer known simply as the unabomber. his bombing campaign killed three and injured more than 20 people. his calling card a manifesto railing against technology in the modern world. it would be those words that led to his capture. tonight for the first time on television, we hear from the woman who turned him in. she sat down with me for "20/20 discovery id presents homicide.

money at yale's computer science center -- >> reporter: the most wanted in america, the unabomber, a ghost targeting universities and airliners. thus the name. the unabomber. >> there's been almost as much money spent on the unabomber investigation as all serial murderers put together. he's that important. >> reporter: but in the end his capture would also come down to this woman. speaking out tonight in her first television interview. >> the longest fbi investigation in the history of our country. but how was it that you, a college professor, was the first to suspect ted kaczynski could be the unabomber? >> the main reason is the fbi began to release information. >> reporter: more on her in a moment. nearly 30 yes, there is ago there wasn't much information for the fbi to go on. that is until 1987 when computer store owner gary wright became the victim of the unabomber's 12th bomb. >> as i drove into the rear

a piece of wood. i went over to pick it up. i bent down. and i put my hand on the very end of it. and immediately something happened. there was a big blast of pressure. and i was knocked about 20 feet backwards into the parking lot. >> what happened? >> when it went off there was about 200 pieces of shrapnel that went through my body at various points. >> reporter: just before wright arrived -- >> i found out my secretary had been looking out this window right here. and she saw somebody kneeling down, pulled something out of a bag, and set it on the ground. and they were looking face-to-face about four feet apart from one another. >> reporter: now investigators are able to derive the first police sketches of the elusive killer, a miscellaneousoustached man. >> a white male with high school education, might appear to be a nice guy with no apparent predisposition to violence --

it's the unabomber himself who gives the fbi more to work with by contacting the media and demands two newspapers print a long manuscript he's written or the killings will continue. >> as we know, in inn so many cases of serial killers, pride got goeth before the fall. >> reporter: the new york types and "washington post" published the manifesto. >> it is blackmail pure and simple to which the "times" and "post" acceded. were they justified in doing so? >> reporter: history might say yes. college professor linda patrick reads the information the fbi releases and thinks she recognizes familiar-sounding ideas from letters her husband david kaczynski and his family received from his brother ted. >> that must have been awful to have these suspicions that you were going to share with this man, who you love --

but it was really important to talk with dave about it. >> when she said, i think maybe your brother's the unabomber. i thought, well -- this is not anything to worry about, ted's never been violent, i've never seen him violent. >> reporter: linda's suspicions kept growing. >> they had posted the first few pages of the manifesto on the screen. computer. in the lobby of the library. so dave went with me. and then as dave read the first page, i was sitting at his side and his jaw dropped. >> i thought i was going to read the first page of this, turn to linda and say, "i told you so." on an emotional level it just sounded like my brother's voice. >> reporter: david's older brother ted had once had a promising future. he'd gone to harvard at 16, earned a ph.d. in math at university of michigan. but it's when ted kaczynski as

he gives up on pain stream society. he build himself a cabin in montana and retreats from the world. >> he began to write very hostile, angry, resentful letters to our parents. i had a hard time understanding where the resentment came from. >> reporter: david and the family had long suspected ted suffered from some kind of mental illness. but until now, david says, they had been in denial. >> how long do you think he was challenged with mental illness? >> it's pretty clear that by the time he was a graduate student at the university of michigan, he was suffering from some pretty serious delusions. >> reporter: the family makes the wrenching decision to contact the fbi. >> thought about the families that were bombed. there was one in which the package arrived to the man's home and his little 2-year-old daughter was there. she was almost in the room when he opened the package. luckily she left and his wife left.

and there were others. so i spent those days thinking about those people. >> reporter: on april 3rd, 1996, a nine-man s.w.a.t. team apprehended ted kaczynski at his cabin in lincoln, montana. they find containers with bomb materials, notebooks containing almost 40,000 pages of writings. the typewriter on which he typed his manifesto. >> the fbi has arrested a man in lincoln, montana -- >> are you the unabomber? >> the three of us were sitting together, linda and myself and my mother, watching the arrest of my brother on tv. i've never seen a street person that looked worse off than ted looked at that moment. his clothes were tattered. apparently he had not bathed in weeks or months. i still am haunted by the look on his face. >> reporter: kaczynski goes on trial in sacramento, california. january 1998. it's clear the key issue in the

kaczynski's guilt but his sanity and whether he would be spared the death penalty. >> my major argument against the death penalty for my brother is the fact that he's diagnosed with a serious mental illness. paranoid schedulesizophrenia. >> i would like to say our reaction to today's plea agreement is one of deep relief. most important, my mother and i wish to reiterate to the surviving victims our deep sorrow and regret. to express our wish to reach out to you in whatever way possible -- >> reporter: one of those david reaches out to is victim number 12, gary wright. >> i picked up the phone and i dialed the number. and i hear a voice on the other end saying, you've reached the wright house at the wrong time. i wasn't prepared for that. i was like -- i mumbled, i'm david kaczynski, i think maybe you know who i am. i'd love to talk if you're open

a couple of days. >> first he just said, i want to call and apologize on behalf of my family. that was the first thing. i said, well, david, i have to tell you something. that everybody has people in their family they probably want to apologize for and it may not be at the same level. i know people want to apologize for me and you really don't need to carry this. that's not your responsibility. >> what a gift. >> yeah. it was like a gift. >> reporter: and in ensuing years david and the man his brother tried to murder are crisscrossing the country speaking out against the death penalty, advocating instead for reconciliation, mercy, grace. >> i think on some level, whether we recognize it or not in ourselves, there is this hunger for reconciliation. that violence not be the last word. >> i don't know if linda understands how grateful i am to her. linda saved lives. she saved our family's honor and

and ultimately perhaps contributed to saving ted's life too. >> the series "20/20 homicide" on discovery id. steve harvey had his flub during miss universe -- >> i have to apologize. >> reporter: but tonight he's the one doing the laughing. [screaming] the bold nissan rogue,with intuitive all wheel drive. because winter needs a hero. now get a $199 per month lease on the 2016 nissan rogue.

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finally tonight, steve harvey isn't in the best position to be throwing shade

on his game show one family's