good morning. breaking news, two passenger jets collide while taxiing for takeoff at boston international airport. the plane badly damaged. hundreds of passengers rattled. this morning, we'll hear from some of them. she's out. the embattled head of the newspapers in that phone hking scandal resigns overnight as rupert murdoch speaks out about what he says are title lies about his company. and the event, they blocked off the road gathered to see all these things chris brown,

off the road gathered to see all these things chris brown, friday, july 15th, 2011. captions paid for by nbc-universal television oh, my goodness. welcome to "today" on a friday morning. i'm matt lauer. >> i'm ann curry. we've got to go right to what's happening outside our side you. a crowd of an estimated 12,000 people at least have gathered. and al roker is smack in the middle of it. >> actually, ann, we've got up over on top of it, the new york city police department for the first time in my memory for our concert series has closed off 48th street from vehicular traffic and they closed off 49th street, our biggest concert crowd ever. 12,000 people. you can see there the

intersection of rockefeller center and 49th street is now closed off. it is completely filled with people. folks have been camping out for this concert since wednesday. overnight, the line stretched on 5th avenue all of the way to 51st street for chris brown. people have been waiting for this concert to see this young man who is on the top of the charts and really just ready for a big, big concert. matt? >> i tell you, al, this represents this morning, the motorcade had to actually move these people out of the way. anyway, we'll get back to you in a couple of minutes. meanwhile, there has been a major development in the ongoing budget negotiations. president obama suspended the talks for the today. we'll tell you why and we'll talk to one of the senators who has been inside the negotiating room all week long. >> that's right. and also casey anthony is going to be released this sunday.

and -- from prison. authorities are becoming increasingly concerned for her safety and we're live at the jail this morning with details on that story. remember the photo we showed you earlier this week of that massive 18-foot long crocodile, the saltwater croc? a lot of people thought this was a doctor'd photograph. you can believe it's real. we went in search of that beast and we found him. let's begin with that breaking news over night in boston where two delta planes collided. nbc's tom costello covers aviation for us in washington. good morning. >> delta flight 226 heading to europe and delta regional jet atlantic southeast flight headed to raleigh, durham, north carolina. neither plane ended up going anywhere last night. passengers aboard two planes got quite a jolt thursday evening when their jets collided on the tarmac. >> it looked awfully close. it just clipped it. the tip of the wing just sheered

right off. >> reporter: the larger jet, a delta boeing 767, bound for amsterdam, was preparing to take off when it struck a commuter jet, slicing through its tail and alarming passengers. >> the whole plane jostled. so we rocked side to side. >> a really big shock. >> reporter: the commuter jet heading to north carolina suffered major damage to the tail and horizontal stabilizer and the collision came for a rude awakening for one of its passengers. >> i was half asleep. the next thing you know there was a bang. we all wondered what happened. the pilot came on and said we were clipped by the plane behind us. >> did he hit you with the tail with his wing? >> absly, he did. >> reporter: a similar accident happened in april when a large air fans a-380 hit the tail of a much smaller jet giving it a dramatic spin. an investigation is under way to determine what caused this delta flight to ram into the jet in

boston. but for now, passengers are praising delta staffers for their response to the incident. >> i think they responded pretty well. they told us, everybody remain calm and they'll have somebody come out and take care of us quickly. nobody was hurt. mostly everybody was fine. >> 215 people on board the amsterdam bound flight. 77 on that smaller jet. one passenger on the smaller jet reported some neck pain. other than that, no injuries. the ntsb is investigating. they have collected both black boxes. back to you. >> tom costello in washington. five minutes after the hour. here's ann. >> matt, thanks. we're following also breaking news in london as well this morning where the iembattled chief executive of rupert murdoch's newspaper resigned after days of pressure over that phone hacking scandal. we go to nbc's stephanie goss in london with the latest on this story. good morning. >> good morning, ann. well, rebecca brooks wrote a

letter to her staff and reiterates her apology. she goes on to admit that she's become a focal point in this crisis and potential distraction from news international's efforts to fix the problems of the past. from the moment this scandal broke rebecca brooks has been a lightning rod. the editor of the "news of the wor world" when the most damaging we allegation of phone hacking took place. >> james miller and rebecca brooks can deny knowledge but they can't deny responsibility. >> reporter: in 2002 reporters for the paper are accused of hacking voice mail, a 13-year-old murder victim. brook shut down the paper last sunday firing hundreds but her offer to resign last week was declined by news corp. today the company accepted. meanwhile, brooks' former boss, rupert murdoch, has gone on the defensive choosing to talk to one of his own papers if in an interview with the "wall street journal," he said the damage

done to news corp's reputation are irresist viable. murdoch pledged to investigate any charges of wrong doing and defended his son james, the deputy chief operating officer. i think he acted as fasts he could, the moment he could. as for how the scandal was effecting him personally, murdoch said he was getting annoyed. i'll get over it. i'm tired. murdoch will need his rest, next tuesday the 80-year-old, his son james, and rebecca brooks will be in the hot seat taking questions on the phone hacking scandal from the british parliament. the murdoch's originally said they wouldn't attend what is bound to be a grilling, triggering a strong rebuke. >> my message to, you know, to rebecca brooks, the murdoch, is just do the decent thing. >> reporter: within hours political pressure led to a sflip flop. now all three say they will answer the government's questions. while news corp endures an ever widening crisis here in the uk,

suspension that the company targeting americans is gaining momentum. the fbi has opened an investigation into an unsourced report in one british tabloid that "news of the world "account attempted to hack the phones of 9/11 victims. news international, the subsidiary in the uk, tells nbc news they have seen no evidence to support the claim. but with brooks gone and a full-blown investigation on going in the uk that involves a former prime minister and the royals, among others, some experts believe investigators in the u.s. will hold off for now. >> the u.s. is not going to want to be seen as trying to trump the british. the britts are going to be the ones who investigate this. it's really their interest at stake. >> reporter: james murdoch wrote a letter to staff as well outlining what news international has done so far to try to fix this problem. he mentioned the resignation of rebecca brooks, the backing out of the deal as well as the closing of the "news of the world" newspaper. he went on to say that news

international is going to print this weekend in british newspapers an advertisement apologizing for "news of world"'s action. ann? >> all right, stephanie gosk this morning. once again, here's matt. now to washington. president obama joined the new line in the sand when it comes to the debate over raising the debt ceiling. nbc's kristen welker has more on this from the white house. >> good morning to, you you matt. with less than three weeks to resolve this issue, president obama told congress aol leaders it's decision time. he has given them a day off, told them to talk to their caucuses and figure out a path forward. for the first time this week there will be no face-to-face meetings at the white house today. the talks are stuck. the president wants a big deficit reduction plan that would also raise revenue by rolling back hacked credits for wealthy americans and large corporations. republicans are holding the line say nothing new taxes. >> that's a place where i don't

believe a single republican in the house or senate are willing to go. >> reporter: fearing the talks might fall apart, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell and majority leader harry reid are working on a backup plan based on a proposal mcconnell presented earlier this week which would allow the president to raise the debt ceiling in three increments through the 2012 election. >> hopefully we can come up with this big robust deal we've been trying to get. until we do that we're going to look at other alternatives. >> reporter: with no deal in sight there's still a lot of partisan wrangling. >> my message to the republicans who are stopping us from extending the debt ceiling is that if they bring this economy down they've broken it and they own it. >> we're not going to raise the debt ceiling if we don't have cuts in excess of that amount that we don't want to raise taxes. >> reporter: after democrats suggested that house majority leader eric cantor was undercutting speaker john boehner by dominating the debt talks, the republi