on our broadcast tonight from london one of the most momentous days of these summer games. big news tonight in two signature sports -- swimming and gymnastics. also tonight the air scare. how did three commuter jets full of people come so dangerously close in the skies above a big metropolitan area? inside syria president obama's decision to give more help to the rebels and what it might mean for the fight. plus it's been an incredible journey to get to these olympic games. up close and personal with the young american gymnast they call the flying squirrel. gabby douglas. "nightly news" from london gabby douglas. "nightly news" from london begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television

good evening once again from london where again tonight these games have made news. more than that they've made history and let's begin with fair warning. even though what happened here late today has been reported and replayed and repeated around the world already we try to supply an ample spoiler alert and this is one of those cases because we're about to report results. in gymnastics, a stunner of a gold medal performance for a young woman who is about to be the talk of our country. gabby douglas, who gutted it out and won on style and grit and poise and sheer talent at age 16, the first african-american ever to do so. and in swimming, this was the long-awaited showdown in the pool with the top two americans locking horns for a gold medal. nbc's kevin tibbles is across

town in olympic park with all of it tonight. kevin, good evening. >> reporter: brian, talk about a night of high drama in the pool. the final race of these games between the greatest olympic swimmer ever and the man who wants to dethrone him. this is it. and the crowd gathered early to see who would be victorious. >> my heart says phelps. my head says lochte. >> reporter: the final showdown between the most decorated olympic athlete ever and the teammate who has become his number one rival in the pool. round one saturday went to challenger ryan lochte, who left michael phelps in his wake in the 400-meter individual medley. shockingly, phelps finished fourth. >> so far, these swimming games belong to ryan lochte. >> reporter: olympic teammates since athens in 2004, they worked together tuesday on yet another gold medal relay. in the 4 x 200 free style and

winnin phelps his historic 19th gold. >> i was saying thank you for you guys making this possible. >> reporter: tonight round two. the 200-meter individual medley. a race phelps owned at the 2004 and 2008 olympics. but a race lochte now holds the world record in. >> i think there's a lot more riding on this now. this is really kind of the end of the match race and i think it's going to go down to the wire. >> reporter: that's exactly what happened. in an electrifying finish the master michael phelps once again proved to the world he can still be number one. lochte took the silver in this, his last london race. >> we've been racing for eight years now, and the rivalry that we've created has been tremendous for the sport. our friendship that we've created also is awesome. >> i think once it's all over it's going to hit me emotionally. >> reporter: tonight a new feather in phelps' cap. the first man ever to three-peat

gold in any swimming event. and there was more american olympic history made tonight when 16-year-old gabby douglas won the gold for the best all-around gymnast. the first african-american to win the title, her second gold medal of the games. >> i'm going to seize the moment. it goes by so fast. >> reporter: tonight the little dynamo with the mile wide smile is flying high and she's not done yet. she has two more events next week. and, brian, back to swimming, the phenom that is phelps isn't done yet either. he still has two more chances at gold here in london before he says he's going to hang up his swimming goggles for good. brian? >> kevin tibbles at olympic park across town, kevin, thanks. we want to let you know later in the broadcast our profile of gabby douglas and the amazing journey that brought her here to london for these games. again tonight we're about to show you the medal count on the screen. if you don't want to know look

away. here is the tally so far for the top five nations in the competition as to where things stand as of tonight. it is now safe to come back. and now to the story in the skies over washington that got the attention of a lot of people today, and something to make clear starting out. washington national airport would never be built where it is today if they had it to do all over again. jets take a twisty, often harrowing route down the potomac river to land there and it means the skies are always full of planes just a short distance away from the white house and all of the d.c. landmarks in our post 9/11 era. but this most recent problem is about too many jets in the same air space and some dangerous miscommunication. pete williams is at reagan national airport tonight for us. pete, good evening. >> reporter: brian, officials acknowledge this was a big mistake. two planes were allowed to take off in the wrong direction toward a third plane that was

coming in for a landing on the same runway with about 60 people onboard each one. it happened around 2:00 tuesday afternoon when much of the traffic here is smaller commuter jets. regional air traffic controllers noticed a violent weather system south of the airport so they decided to switch the normal flow to have planes land from the north to avoid it. the decision meant changing the direction of takeoffs, too, but federal officials say that work was never properly relayed to the local controllers who handle takeoffs. as a regional us airways jet headed to the airport from the north, two other commuter planes were cleared to take off to the north. the first airplane was improperly allowed to take off toward the plane heading in and came within one mile of it. federal officials say the plane taking off climbed rapidly, passing 800 feet above the incoming flight. federal rules require keeping planes even further apart. when the air traffic controllers noticed how close the planes

came, they told that inbound flight to turn away from the airport and circle to avoid the second plane taking off. the inbound pilot was clearly exasperat exasperated. >> we were cleared at the river back there. what happened? >> stand by. we're trying to figure this out, too. stand by. >> okay. we really don't have the fuel for this. we got to get on the ground here pretty quick. >> reporter: the plane was told to turn right away from the airport as the second plane took off, but it also passed too close for federal minimums coming within 2.5 miles and 800 feet of vertical separation. federal officials insist the planes were never directly headed toward each other. >> it was not a near miss and it wasn't a near miss because the planes really were not on a collision course and we had a controller who did exactly what she was trained to do. >> reporter: but a former commercial airline pilot says even so it was a huge mistake. >> on a scale of zero to 10, i would say that it's approaching

eight or somewhere in that range. it's a very serious error for this to happen. >> tonight federal officials are investigating how the takeoff controllers failed to get the word to change direction and the faa wants to know why it first heard of this from a reporter and not through channels. brian? >> we're all glad it was not a 10 in the end. pete williams at reagan national, tonight, thanks. a huge double decker passenger bus enroute from kansas city to chicago ran off the highway, smashed into a bridge support in southern illinois late today, and of the 65 people onboard one person killed, over 30 injured. many of them had to be air lifted out. i-55 was closed in both directions during the rescue and cleanup. state police say the bus blew a tire before veering off the road. the historic drought across the u.s. was our lead story here on the broadcast last night. now that almost half the counties in the u.s. have been declared disaster areas, but just today another serious

consequence with not enough water and no big rains in sight the mississippi river is now closed way up to the north in wisconsin where a barge ran aground in shallow waters. in other spots down stream, the river has narrowed significantly, making navigation hazardous. now we turn to syria and significant new help for the rebels from the united states. as we first reported here last night, president obama has authorized the cia to provide support for the rebels against the regime in this civil war. there are developments actually on a couple of fronts tonight. we get our report from our chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell. >> reporter: rebel video posted online showing the pace of fighting intensifying around aleppo, syria's largest city. rebels take on a convoy of syrian army tanks and personnel carriers. they suffer losses but celebrate capturing at least one tank. nbc's richard engel is inside northern syria covering the

rebel forces. >> reporter: aside from weapons the rebels also need strategy. rebel units generally operate independently or coordinate on a local or regional level. they don't always have a big picture of what's happening on the battle field nationwide. they need guidance on where to attack, where to retreat, and how to win a war instead of just carrying out somewhat random attacks and ambushes. >> reporter: the u.s. is stepping up. president obama has signed a top-secret order approving covert cia aid to the rebels coordinated from southern turkey at a command center in adana near the giant u.s.-run nato base at incerlik. >> both the u.s. military and intelligence community could provide signals intelligence support, overhead imagery from satellites or other aircraft, and they can also simply help advise them on military tactics. >> reporter: the rebels also reportedly now have shoulder-mounted missiles. though u.s. officials say not from the u.s. >> we've heard various reports

about other nations providing it. we've heard reports of the cia, quote, vetting, but the fact is the united states has not been doing nearly what it can do. >> reporter: and today a major defeat for diplomacy. u.n. envoy kofi annan quit his mission blaming russia, syria's ally, while vladimir putin refused to yield in talks with david cameron who sat down with matt lauer. >> we should send a very clear warning to the syrian leadership if they on any scale use chemical or biological weapons very severe consequences could follow. >> reporter: many in congress say this is not america's war. >> american intervention, american words, are not going to resolve this. this is really something that has to be worked out more on the ground by the leadership, itself, and by the neighbors. >> reporter: but there is broad agreement that the u.s. would step in immediately if assad were to use chemical weapons. still, by sending the cia the

hope is that the rebels would stand a chance of winning without putting u.s. troops in the middle of another civil war. brian? >> andrea mitchell in our d.c. newsroom with the latest tonight. andrea, thanks. still ahead for us as we continue from london, was there an early warning about the accused gunman in aurora, colorado? and later, as promised, the gabby douglas story before we see her perform in primetime tonight. what it took this tiny person to make the huge leap to the olympics. ther e's the sign to the bullpen. ther here he comes. you wouldn't want your doctor doing your job, the pitch! whoa! so why are you doing his? only your doctor can determine if your persistent heartburn is actually something more serious like acid reflux disease. over time, stomach acid can damage the lining of your esophagus. for many, prescription nexium not only provides 24-hour heartburn relief, but can also help heal acid-related erosions in the lining of your esophagus. talk to your doctor about the risk for osteoporosis-related bone fractures and low magnesium levels with long-term use of nexium.

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and injured 58. our report from nbc's mike taibbi. >> reporter: before james holmes quit his neuro science ph.d program he was being treated by dr. lynn fenton a university of colorado psychiatrist. by then, mid june, police say he had already begun assembling an arsenal of four guns like these, full tactical gear, and 6,000 rounds of ammunition. were there warning signs he was unraveling? there have been unconfirmed reports that dr. holmes spoke to about him then to the campus's blafrl evaluation and threat assessment team that handles concerns about individuals who may be threatening, disruptive, or otherwise problematic. even though campus police are part of the beta team no apparent move was made to impose a 72-hour mental health evaluation on holmes as is available under colorado law. >> when an individual is deemed to be of imminent danger to others, they can be involuntarily committed against their will and frequently against their wishes.

>> reporter: a campus police source told nbc news that enforcing an involuntary mental health hold is a gray area and psychiatrists who hear lots of disturbing talk from patients agree. >> they tend to err on the side of personal rights so if the person is able to convince them they're not being dangerous at that moment they typically don't hospitalize them. >> the university of colorado chancellor's reaction, i believe until it's been demonstrated otherwise, that our people did what they should have done. no comment from dr. fenton. and judge william sylvester has ordered a hearing next week into how much if anything about her contacts with james holmes five weeks and more before the massacre will ever be made public. mike taibbi, nbc news, los angeles. up next here tonight first word of a medical advance that could some day help millions of americans. [ kate ] many women may not be properly absorbing

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a freak of nature in florida. we've put these pictures on our website tonight so you can just stare at them. they're called fire rainbows even though they are neither on fire nor really rainbows. they are iridescent cloud tops that give off color wave lengths in the sky and they are beautiful. something more ominous, early warning of the newest tropical storm ernesto is just starting out heading toward the region of barbados and martinique. we will keep an eye on it. the fda has approved a kind of attachment for all types of pills, a tiny, harmless transmitter that will electrically register if you've taken your pill or not. it mixes with stomach acids and sends out a signal you've taken the pill. the inventors hope it might be taken for seniors who often forget to take their meds. another health item in the news. more americans are quitting smoking than ever before but there is a counterevidence that other tobacco use is up at the

same time like cigars and pipes. the cdc says tobacco remains the leading cause of preventible death in the u.s. in 2012. that chick-fil-a appreciation day yesterday was a he success. customers of the chain were asked to come by, show their support after the boss came out forcefully against same sex marriage. the company didn't release any real sales numbers for its 1600 outlets but said it was a record-setting day nonetheless. still more evidence that folks really are watching these summer olympic games at addiction levels. the city of los angeles yesterday demanded city employees stop watching olympic highlights or streaming coverage on their computers at work over worries that they will crash the entire system. netflix reports their business is down a full 25% during the olympics. nbc said today the most popular sport here among cable viewers

is archery in our post hunger games era. when we come back, the young woman millions will be watching tonight back home in the u.s. i was teaching a martial arts class and having a heart attack. my brother doesn't look like a heart attack patient. i'm on a bayer aspirin regimen. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. i'm a fighter and now i don't have that fear. on my feet and exactly where i needed more support. then, i got my number.

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take a look at this. william and kate just being kids and celebrating a british gold medal in bike racing at the velodrome today. they attend a lot of events here with brother harry and the brits are on a big medal run as our host country. about their women's olympic team, the bbc said today, quote, on a horse, on a boat, on a bike, in the pool, in their pajamas, they continue to enjoy their golden moment. that pajama reference had to do with the silver medal in judo today. and now about those american women. tonight is gymnastics. and millions of folks back home will be watching the so-called flying squirrel, gabby douglas. because of her talent, her smile, her sparkle, and her story, which we get tonight from nbc's chris jansing. >> reporter: don't let gabby douglas' size, her megawatt smile, or her infectious laugh

fool you. she is one fierce gymnast. >> she is so great. she flies. >> nick named the flying squirrel. >> i love to make it really high so i can just hear the crowd on the side go, oh! >> reporter: she was spunky even as a toddler. >> flipping off furniture and scaling the doors. she'd grab ahold of the door handle and then just scale to the top of the door. >> she started training at 6 with the intensity of an olympian even then. >> first place, gabriel douglas. >> reporter: when she was just 9 years old gabby's dad went to war to iraq then afghanistan. >> i just had to pray to god just to keep him safe and the angels to keep my dad safe and come back home. >> reporter: he came back safely but her parents separated. she was devastated and distracted. and she believed she could find her focus again with acclaimed coach liang chao. the trouble was his gym was 1200

miles away in iowa. >> it was horrible. very, very hard. i cried. >> reporter: gabby remembers looking down from the plane, a scared 14-year-old. >> all of these fields of corn and oh, my goodness. what am i getting myself into? >> reporter: at first the move was promising. chao was taking gabby's skills to a new level. a local family the partons volunteered to be her home away from home. >> we promised her mom we'd make her feel as much a part of our family as if she were our own flesh and blood. >> reporter: and gabby loved playing big sister to their four young girls. the community has embraced her as well. local tv and newspapers have done stories on gabby and the triple-a ball club for the chicago cubs invited her to throw out the first pitch. >> ladies and gentlemen, on your feet for gabby douglas! >> reporter: gabby was thriving.

but pangs of home sickness were setting in. you'd been here about a year and a half right? >> yes. >> how many times have you been home? >> zero. >> reporter: at last year's visa championship, she fell off the balance beam three times. feeling the pressure to succeed, in january she wanted to quit. >> i'm like oh, i miss my mom and my family. i even miss my dog. >> i said, if you think you're going to have regrets then don't do it. >> reporter: gabby not only decided to stay in iowa, she roared back in competition. scoring an upset to win the u.s. gymnastics trials. and in london, both families have been in the stands celebrating the team gold medal led by her proud mom. >> she is energetic, caring, compassionate. you know, if i didn't know her i'd want to meet her. >> reporter: now the world is having a chance to meet gabby

douglas. gabby really has that star quality. you can't buy it. you can't fake it. you can't teach it. but the whole family is that way. frankly, at this olympics, brian, they've got a lot to smile about. >> we get to see it tonight. millions of us. chris, thanks. chris jansing with her story. that's it for us on a thursday night. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams reporting tonight from london. we sure hope to see you again tomorrow evening. good night.