tonight on "nightline," danger zone. it's packed air space with pilots fly with virtually no rules as the grim recovery continues. will this midair collision trigger a new flight plan for the dangerously crowded skies? race against time. with flu season looming and students back to school, americans coast to coastlined up to test an h1n1 swine flu vaccine. we are behind the scenes at today's trials to see how the injection works and when it might be ready. the wild west. stolen livestock are showing up on the auction block. but this ain't no western. recession cattle wrestling is on the rise. and ranchers will shoot to kill.

tonight's "sign of the times". captions paid for by abc, inc. good evening, ever. i'm terry moran. we begin with the worst air disaster here in new york city in nearly eight years. it happened saturday under sunny skies and at a low altitude above the crowded banks of the hudson river. a small plane clipped the helicopter and both aircraft were sent plunging into the water below, no survivors. now more than 48 hours later, many are questioning how easy it was for the two pilots to cross paths in this deadly midair collision. one many eyewitnesses saw from the ground as lisa stark now reports. >> you're saying that there's a helicopter down in the water? >> two helicopters just went down in the hudson. >> did they crash into each

other? >> frantic 911 calls came flooding in moments after impact. >> 911, what is your emergency? >> a helicopter struck and landed in the water -- >> went straight down. >> okay, sir. the ambulance is going to be there -- >> we saw something explode and then something fall after that. so i would hurry. >> witnesses say a small fixed wing plane approached a commercial helicopter from behind. and clipped it with a wing. both aircraft instantly split apart and plunged into the hudson river, killing all nine on board the two aircraft. members of three different families including three teenage boys. >> we simply can't see 360 degrees around us and consequently when you have a low-wing airplane and something below it and a helicopter that can't see well with above, you have the ideal potential, shall we say, for a midair collision. that is exactly what happened here. >> but many aviation experts believe this midair collision

could have been avoided. and that part of the problem is a long standing air traffic rule that governs the flight of many small aircraft across the country. it's called see and avoid. >> the so-called rules which by the way, that stands for visual flight rules, are built around the idea that everybody stays away from everybody else. see and avoid. very much like the rules of the road on the sea. >> unlike the commercial airplanes that are in constant contact with air traffic controllers, smaller aircraft during good weather can fly over much of the u.s. without talking to controllers. instead, they simply look out for one another. >> the problem is that this is mythology, the idea that you can see and avoid everybody around you. you can't see everybody around you. that's one of the great fallacies and it's time to face it and say, okay, we have to have electronics and procedures to bridge those gaps. >> to experience first hand what it's really like to fly over the hudson river corridor and to

understand how see and avoid really works, i took to the sky with veteran pilot paul dudley, manager for a new jersey airport. how confusing would it be for a pilot who's not that familiar for this -- with this area? >> you don't go where you're not comfortable or qualified to go. >> how busy can it get though? how many planes might you have? >> again, like being on the highway. you look down, look at the highway in front of us now. some days some people think that's very busy and others it's a walk in the park. >> we spotted a dozen or so planes and helicopters all talking to each other through a common radio frequency. >> south of dispatch -- >> okay. now, see i just heard somebody who's over there by the statue of liberty. okay. he's at 500 feet. you can see him on the display here actually on our little display. he's below us. and he said he's going to buttermilk which means he's coming over this way. so we're going to be aware. >> but pilots are not required

to radio their position. it is voluntarily. the procedures failed on saturday. this is not the first time. back in october of 2006, new york yankees relief pitcher cory lytle along with his flight instructor crashed a plane into the upper eastside building. >> they're closing in -- oh -- >> we're going to pull out. >> in phoenix, arizona, in 2007, two news choppers collided while covering a police pursuit. the probable cause of the crash according to the ntsb -- both pilots failure to see and avoid the other helicopter. debbie hearseman is chairman of the ntsb. >> we believe there are certain air spaces that are challenging. we investigated one involving two news-gathering helicopters in phoenix and we made recommend aches about technology, proximity awareness of traffic.

alerts. we made some recommending as about technology might improve it. we have seen -- >> traffic collision avoidance systems? >> right. awareness for large aircraft. >> see how it pops up on the screen? traffic. somebody coming at us. he's 600 feet higher than us. >> back in our helicopter, there is technology to pip point nearby aircraft. it is not mandatory. >> see the helicopter all the way up there? he's much much higher than and we know this because of the device. >> some experts have recommended that an in areas such as the hudson river, planes and helicopters be required to fly at different altitudes. of the lytle -- after the lytle crash, the faa banned all aircraft without special permission from aircraft traffic. that ban did not apply to the hudson just two miles across town. >> we will continue to look for all of the aircraft parts. we're going to have to see what

we can find. >> on the hudson the immediate job is to recover the last two victims and to bring up the airplane from 60 feet of water. the mangled helicopter and seven bodies have already been pulled from the river. it's a difficult job. but this accident and others have shown the harder task is preventing these tragedies in the first place. for "nightline," i'm lisa stark in hoboken, new jersey. >> and this evening authorities confirmed that one of the two remaining bodies was located with the wreckage of the plane. our thanks to lisa stark for that report. when we come back, students return to school and testing begins on an h1n1 flu vaccine and americans are lining up to get the first shots. ots. (announcer) one pair of pleated slacks: i don't think so

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the h1n1 swine flu virus

continues to spread and to claim lives in the united states and around the world. and the stakes here are on the rise, with students streaming back to school and the traditional flu season baring down on many parts of the country. so today, trials began on a government-funded vaccine that is literally in a race against time. volunteers offered their arms to the test. >> they are first in line in the fight against the h1n1 flu. >> the sooner i get it, the safer it is for my loved one z bay i work in the -- because i work in the public sector where i could be exposed to it. i don't want to take that flu virus home to those i love and care about. >> this is one of the volunteers in labs across the country, like this one at the university of maryland, helping researchers fine-tune the formula needed to stop this pandemic. >> it's a very contagious virus. and so it's infecting a lot of

people. >> h1n1 has killed more than 400 people in the u.s. and 1,100 others around the world. the flu strain debuted in the spring and people have continued to get sick throughout the summer. now doctors worry about what will happen when the temperature drops and the normal flu season begins. >> because of the sheer numbers, we are expecting many, many more hospitalizations than normal and more deaths than we normally expect from the flu. >> the world health organization estimates h1n1 could infect as many as two billion people over the next two years, which is why these vaccine trials are so critical. >> is there a time estimate on this, how long it will be most effective? >> doctors are trying to figure out dosage, how many shots each patient will need and how strong they must be. these volunteers will receive a range of doses as they are putting themselves at risk. >> any medication, any vaccine can give certain people allergic

reactions. >> side effects can include fever, allergic reaction and a remote chance of paralysis and even death. nicole dungy

>> they're not allowed to share. they couldn't share food, share towels. things like that. >> parents are setting new boundaries. >> we have talked about no high fiving. things like that. instead, we're going to do -- can you do that with that? yeah. >> but everyone knows that's not enough. >> we're going to keep checking. every little fever that we have, we'll have the test to make sure

we don't have the swine flu on our hands. >> miles away in mexico, the flu was at the forefront in talks between the president and his mexican and canadian counterpart. >> with science as our guide, we resolve to continue taking all necessary preparations and precautions to prepare for the upcoming flu season and protect the health of our people. this challenge transcends borders and so must our response. >> these trials will largely guide that response. volunteers will spend the next three weeks keeping a diary as doctors track their reaction. >> i can see a dot where she went through your skin. >> they'll get another shot and in six weeks doctors hope to have the formula they need. >> before you leave, they're going to schedule your next visit. >> volunteers who complete the full program earn $600, but no one here seems in it for the money. >> you can never do too many things that help other people. you read in the paper about what this can be and this is just --

i'm not a doctor. this is a chance where i can do something. >> a little something that could mean the difference between life and death for so many around the world. >> so the test begins and if all goes well with these volunteers, trials on children as young as six months are expected to begin in three weeks. when we come back, you better count your livestock. modern-day cattle wrestling is on the rise and that's tonight's "sign of the times".

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the recession has been blamed for all sorts of outlaw behavior. believe it or not, ranchers across the south are reporting a spike in livestock larceny. cattle makes surprisingly easy targets. hot iron branding isn't the target it once was, but make no mistake, these cowboys are fighting back and it's "a sign of the times". >> life on the ranch has a rhythm. the days are long. they begin before sunrise. the work is hard. the summer sun is unrelenting. the chores are endless. >> come on. >> the rancher's rest comes only when the sun finally disappears. nights on the ranch are peaceful.

but something has interrupted that rhythm. something that has rancher jeff emerson up at night, patrolling his fences, checking his locks. >> it's a feeling like, you know, somebody broke into your house and stole something. you know, this no worse than somebody taking your door in and stealing your stereo. at least mine is a four-legged stereo, i guess. a hell of a stereo though. >> emerson is about as unlikely a crime victim as you'll ever meet. but this oklahoma rancher is very much a victim of a crime right out of the old west. how many do you figure have been stolen and over what time period? >> over a 90-day period, 30. gave or take -- >> wow. 30? >> yeah. when i counted again on july 6. >> you heard the man, 30 of his specially bred cattle have vanished. >> we get about $3,000 an animal so, you know, i'm out 90 to 100

grand. it's kind of a bite in the butt. >> especially for smaller ranchers like jeff. >> it's really tough on the small business man. that's all we are really. >> he and his wife chris own an organic food store in tulsa where they sell hormone free steaks from the cattle they raise a few miles away. as he says, getting oklahomans to go organic is tough nut without someone stealing so much of his product. >> might as well go rob a bank. it's easier -- to get out here in the sun and the weeds and the muck and the mud and steal a cow. why in the world do they want to work so hard? come on, girls! don't be bashful! >> ted allen had spent nearly every one of his 78 years on a ranch. he thought cattle wrestling existed only in the westerns he loves to watch. then, they ripped off a dozen of his beloved cows in just the last year. >> oh, i couldn't believe

anybody would steal a cow. it didn't make sense to me. but when you can't find them, and they can't fly, somebody has them. >>i turns out there's a -- it turn out there a's a lot of somebodies. in texas alone, more than 6,000 head of cattle were stolen last year. that's triple the number from the year before. and in 2009, it's set to break records in ranching states across the west. >> i don't think it's good people out there stealing for their children to eat. i think it's hoodlums taking advantage of easy money. >> that may be true, but the special rangers assigned to catch cattle wrestlers says it has everything to do with the investigation. >> it's here to stay. a lot of people are out of work.

i think thieves have figured out it's good money. >> and veteran cowboys say they can do it in a matter of minutes, armed with little more than a bag of feed. >> he doesn't need dogs, he needs a paper sack. and he could put a couple of rocks in it and shake it and the cows are coming straight into the pen. he can load up to two or three, if he knows what he's doing. once he pulls on to the state highway, he's home free. >> his next stop -- a cattle auction. this is one of the few crimes where a thief can count on getting full price. up to $1,000 a head. that's because buyers have no way of knowing a cow is stolen. behind the scenes inspectors take note of brands and rangers look for anything suspicious. sometimes they get lucky. >> i had a case a couple of years ago, a guy showed up in a

subcontact, opened it up and pulled out two kids. it was a clue they were stolen. >> for the most part, stopping this crime is the responsibility of the rancher. >> stand still. >> which is why they have added another ritual to the day. counting cattle. >> 11 -- >> they do it religiously. 30. >> to make sure they haven't lost anymore. >> i never did lock anything, but it's going to force us to. we're going to force them to cut the fence and the good thing about that, we're patrolling the fences two and three times a day and every night. if we find a fence that's been cut, there's a good chance they're in there right then. >> if the cattle wrester gets caught red handed, look out. >> a man would hate to shoot somebody over a lousy cow, but i probably would. and i hit what i shoot at. >> men determined to restore the rhythm of the ranch and reclaim their peaceful night.

i'm ryan owens for "nightline" in bixby, oklahoma. >> cattle wrestlers, beware. our thanks to ryan owens. when we come back, it's not all about bill. just ask hillary. that's the subject of tonight's "closing argument." ument."

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