tonight on "nightline," free-fall. early this morning, powerful turbulence sents an aircraft plummeting without warning. more than 25 were injured, some badly. how serious is this danger in the sky? tonight, what passengers felt during their midair nightmare. and a computer for $300, scar for less than 1,000 -- a car for less than 1 thousand bucks, stocked for millions of dollars of what was stolen property. the deals sure are a steal. plus, end of the line. a new documentary reveals how an insatiable appetite for the most

expensive fish may come at a price no one wants to pay. captions paid for by abc, inc. >> good evening, i'm cynthia mcfadden. we begin with air travel and a frightening situation that ended with an american landing and several passengers hospitalized. a flight from brazil bound for texas hit a powerful pocket of air. the force had unbuckled the passengers and crew hurtling through the cabin. fortunately, no one was killed but it highlights the threat posed by turbulence. the leading cause of mid flight injuries in nonfatal accidents, and sometimes the outcome can be deadly. jeffrey kofman has our report. >> fasten your seat belts. these youtube videos captured

many midair show how jarring, how terrifying, turbulence can be. this doesn't just happen in stormy weather. sometimes turbulence hits on the clearest of days. the passengers of continental flight 128 learned that first hand today. their flight from rio to houston made an emergency landing here in miami after it encountered fierce turbulence over the caribbean while in what were reportedly clear skies. >> it started having like turbulence. it was okay and then there was a huge drop like the airplane seemed like it dropped. like a couple of feet. >> -- and a lady it hit her severely hard. >> it only lasted 15 or 20 seconds at the most. but i mean, it was so violent. it was just like i'm done. >> 26 people on board the boeing

767 were injured. 14er 14 seriously enough to be taken to the local hospitals. >> when i turned around, people who weren't wearing seat belts, they flew up. >> a man hit the roof of the compartment and landed in the aisle. >> this shows the inside of the plane after it landed. for a moment, passengers wondered if they were able to repeat the fateful flight of air france 447 which disappeared from the skies on june 1, killing all 228 people on board. >> the air france, they could tell it broke up over the air. that's what was going through my head. i'm screwed. >> fortunately the turbulence didn't last, if plane landed safely. all the passengers taken to local hospitals have been released. but what happened on what was reportedly a clear day? so how long have you been flying? >> since 1959. >> ed cook took us inside one of

the simulators to show us turbulence up close. so it feels like an airplane in here? >> once we shut the door it will feel like we're in an airplane. the pilots use a five-point harness. >> that's two and then the middle one down here. that would be three. our simulated flight into danger felt unnervingly real. there's miami below us. like the pro he s cook guided us up the coast and then into the everglades. >> we are headed into the red spot and the more we get into the cloud the more turbulence we'll experience. notice that the wheel is moving more, notice that we're bouncing around a little bit more. >> this is exactly what you would not do if you're flying? >> that's exactly right. this could get bad. >> he gave us a good taste of

turbulence, that pilots do everything in real life to avoid. >> because it could do structural damage to the airplane and would hurt people, particularly those not belted in. >> what's causing the turbulence now? >> turbulence right now is just air spilling off around the clouds. it's just the instability around the clouds, some of the air is going up, some is going down. >> anyone who flies means that clouds mean certain turbulence, but as the passengers aboard 128 learned, clear air skies can be perilous. they call it clear air turbulence. >> now, we're looking out there, no clouds. >> radar is clear? >> radar is clear. so we'd feel comfortable in turning off the seat belt sign. we function in a -- an invisible fluid. >> the air. >> the air, right. unless there's moisture involved, you can't see it. so if there were two air masses

running together and they were both dry and their temperature differences were different, and plus a lot of other factors, we could then have turbulence and could see it coming. that's why it's important for passengers when seated to have their seat belts buckled. what causes clear air turbulence? >> two air masses coming together and they're stumbling over each other. they hit, they collide. >> a little worse for wear, we head back. >> there's landing city right there. >> right. there's the skyline of miami. >> 30, 30. 20. 10. >> safely back on the ground and a little wiser about why we're always advised to keep those seat belts fastened. i'm jeffrey kofman for "nightline" at miami international airport. >> indeed. a frightening reminder to stay

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we turn now to a unique shopping opportunity. have you ever wondered what happens to the stolen items that police recover literally billions of dollars worth of goods from electronics, to cars to jewels? well, a former new york cop has found a way to bring the bad guy's booty to the marketplace. the deals sure are hot, as chris bury reports. >> tucked away in a secret spot in greater los angeles is a giant warehouse. so where exactly are we here? >> well, it's an undisclosed

location. >> a building filled to the rafters with millions of dollars oworth -- worth of hot property. what do you tell people you do for living? >> that i sell stolen goods on the internet. >> his company auctions off all kinds of stolen stuff that police have recovered from crookes, cons and thieves, an ebay for anything that's fallen off the truck. do your clients get something of an elicit thrill out of this? >> they get a great thrill and there's something naughty about buying something on the internet. >> the website auctions 30,000 bicycles a year. what if johnny sees his bike on your website? >> well, if johnny sees his bike and he can prove it's his bike, he gets it free of charge. >> nothing shows up after the police try to find the rightful owners. is this a typical display of

stolen loot? >> it really is. we get a lot of musical instruments. >> a nice fender guitar here. >> they get tons of tools and electron electronics, baby buggies, a skah -- a canoe. >> we got a colonoscopy machine come through. >> who buys one? >> i don't know. >> rings and necklaces, some of it was seized from drug dealers. >> if we see something that is rolex, then it is rolex. >> this watch glittering with diamonds retails for $13,000. how many diamonds do you think are on the watch? >> about a thousand. >> a thousand diamonds? so this is really bling? this is super bling. >> yeah, super bling. for people who want the bling

bling this is the watch to get. >> the website is the brain child of an ex-cop from new york. >> i used to have to clean the property room out years ago when i was a detective on long island. >> tom lay knew for many police departments getting rid of recovered loot is a cumbersome chore, but he saw a golden opportunity. >>. >> there's $10 billion worth of goods sitting in the police property rooms in the country. >> property room contracts with 1,400 of them, including those in new york, l.a. and wisconsin. >> once or twice a year we use this as the auction barn. >> for the police, the website has replaced annoying auctions that lost money and land cuffed officers. >> this is not what police officers were designed to do. i want my evidence techs working crime scenes. doing csi-type stuff, not standing up in front of a crowd being an auction near. >> now they auction off the goods and shares the properties. >> well, we tell the police departments, we're going to haul

away your problems and send back money. >> the business got off to a slow start. now, its webpage gets 30,000 visits a day. >> oh, a lot of things here i need to get. >> marie gladly is a regular even obsessive customer. >> what kind of things have you bought? >> i bought this computer. this watch. and i've purchased a television. >> all that, $707. now, her house is filled with once hot merchandise. >> here's like a ring i bought. and i love it. it's a diamond ring. >> real diamonds? >> oh, yes. definitely. >> girl's best friend. >> yes, it is. >> not everything police recover from the bad guys is auctioned off. this walking stick is what they refer to as a concealed weapon. this will not go up for auction on the website. >> it's among the dozen or so items on to do not sell list. >> hand guns, any type of

firearm, drug paraphernalia. >> and drugs? >> and drugs, and pornography. >> but the warehouse is filled with shelf after shelf of green house grow lights. this is something that probably a pot grower might use, right? >> i don't ask. you can use your imagination. >> in hard times like this, the stolen goods business is better than ever. >> last year 2008 we grew at about 30% and it was our best year in the history of the country. >> so the recession has been good for you. >> no one is celebrating the recession, but it has been good for us. >> more than $33 million of recovered property went out the door last year. >> they steal everything but the kitchen sink, they steal the sinks now. >> bidding on the stolen sink and nearly everything else begins at $1. remember that super bling, the diamond studded watch valued at

$13,000? then they have to worry about it being stolen from them? >> yes, that's right. >> i'm chris bury for "nightline" somewhere in los angeles. >> and the secret location is safe with us. chris bury reporting. when we come back, we'll journey to the high seas in the fight to save the world's fish supply before it's too late.

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we turn now to a looming crisis at sea.

the fish supply has been depleaded particularly some of those favored by the larger restaurants. the new documentary details the extent of the problem and what people have done to cause it. so are the world's oceans really at a tipping point? nick watt reports. ♪ >> this film is dramatic, bloody and frightening. frightening because the fish we eat most, tuna, snapper, are apparently on the road to extinction. literally the end of the line. for people who didn't know there was a problem, they're deeply shocked. >> most of the time, people are saying 90% of the time, people are like where have the fish gone? we have eaten them. >> most are the larger fish called marlin and blue finned

tuna. why does it matter if the large fish disappear? well, the oceans will fill with lower forms of life. >> jellyfish infestations are increasing. beaches are no go zones. our oceans once full of large fish are now filling up with algae, plankton and worms. >> plankton are pressed into the fish-shaped pieces perhaps, jellyfish burgers, the options are endless. if you show people what's happening, if you -- if you show them the figures you show them the scientists, explaining how bad the situation is, you show the fish being scooped up into the nets, if you show the people the things, the problem that happened -- that used to happen miles out the sea, the people didn't feel connected with, they feel connected with when you show them the film. >> this film asks us all to be

responsible about the fish we eat, for fishermen to be responsible about the fish they catch and for all of us to pressure our governments to save the oceans before it's too late. the u.s. has some of the strongest fishing controls on earth, but critics say the rules could be even tighter. point out if we're just supporting the problem. >> we import something more like than 70% of the fish, so we're exporting our demand, our unsustainable demand to the rest of the world. >> today, in every ocean of the world, high-tech industrial vessels are hunting down every known edible species of fish. >> yes, that is ted danson. >> we don't have the right to do to fish what we did to buffalo. we don't have the right to exterminate species. >> our awesome appetite for fish

is driving species like the blue fin tuna to the brink. in the mediterranean, fishermen ignore the quotas imposed by governments. they catch three times what they should. restaurants like nobu under some pressure do now list blue fin tuna as endangered on their men knews, but blue fin is still on the menu. >> blue fin is the front line. blue fin is the most immediate crisis that we know about. >> but the message of the film is not too late. >> this is why i made the film ultimately, is this a problem we can solve. >> the reserves are absolutely necessary, but they are necessary and we must have lots of them. >> consumers need to change their eating habits. and the global fishing industry has to abide by the rules and reduce its capacity.

>> i don't think there's any large predators, eat marlins or sharks or cod because they're an endangered species. >> apparently we should go for the smaller fish, anchovies, mackerel, that aren't endangered. your ideal case scenario, we're still gorging ourselves on fish? >> i love eating fish, and so the reason why i made this film because i want to go on eating fish. i want my daughter to eat fish. i want everyone to enjoy seafood. but i want them to enjoy it responsibly. >> and to remember that unless we are careful, there won't always be plenty of fish in the sea. i'm nick watt for "nightline" in london. >> what a bleak outlook for the earth's oceans. nick watt reporting. when we come back, the judge awards custody of michael jackson's children and late news about north korea as former president bill clinton heads off on a diplomatic mission.

we have breaking news regarding north korea. according to south korea's news agency, former president bill clinton has landed in north korea late tonight to negotiate the release of the two american journalists, laura ling and euna lee who were sentenced last month to 12 years hard labor for illeg illegally entering the country and for having committed unspecified grave concerns. secretary of state hillary clinton came close, saying that the two journalists and families have expressed great remorse for the incident and i think everyone is sorry it happened. and finally tonight, almost six weeks after the death of michael jackson, a decision about who