making news in america this morning, breaking right now, tornadoes sweeping through the heartland damaging schools, flipping over vehicles. new video of a twister racing across a highway. and where it's heading next. new clues in the germanwings plane crash. reports of a pilot being locked out of the cockpit. what does the mangled voice recorder reveal as another day of searching for answers gets under way. we're live. safe return but a lot of unanswered questions. a woman thought to be kidnapped is found safe. now the attention turns to her story and whether or not it's true. and different direction. a heartthrob walks away from oned and the internet is flooded with teenagers' tears.

good thursday morning, i'm ryan smith in for t.j. holmes. >> and i'm reena ninan. the latest on the airliner crash in a moment. first an extreme weather outbreak overnight. >> the power system is on the move. you can see it on the radar stretching from texas to indiana already producing at least three huge tornadoes. >> oh, [ bleep ]. >> this powerful tornado flipping a tractor trail i on a highway in moore, oklahoma. >> a car passenger captured the moment with the powerful twister passing in front of them. clayton sandell has the latest on the severe weather. >> oh we got another one. >> reporter: the heart of tornado alley is in the firing zone. tornado sirens blaring as the skies over oklahoma erupt. camera after camera capturing the rotating clouds small vortices twisting on the ground and sometimes full-scale tornadoes.

moore, okaylahoma, already seeing the damage. >> we'll show you the garage blown in here. the windows are also blown in. the roof taken right off this house. >> reporter: reports of debris scattered across town. this woman in her truck as it flipped over on interstate 35. >> i felt glass breaking and i was on the top sliding across. >> you see that right there? that's more power flashes. >> reporter: and tornadoes reported just west of tulsa as the storm swept straight into the city trees crashing down onto cars and homes. >> all i heard is boom. my daddy was in the kitchen and the roof fell in on him. >> reporter: at the airport passengers and luggage moved into hallways to wait out the storm. in sand springs, reports of serious damage. look at this gymnastics building destroyed. 60 people were inside during the storm. amazingly, everyone made it out safe. now the system moves east into missouri where a hailstorm has already swept through.

>> decent hail coming down here. >> reporter: and here in this neighborhood in moore you can see many so of the damage. interest tree was almost sliced right in half by the tornado. the yards here are just covered in debris and take a look at this. this is a large piece of a roof from a house that we think came from all the way over there. the mayor tells us there are about 20 to 30 homes here that sustained major damage. clayton sandell, abc news moore, oklahoma. we will be tracking that weather throughout the day but we turn to the reports that one of the pilots of the plane that went down in france was locked out of the cockpit desperately trying to get back. >> rescue teams back on the ground in the french alps searching for victims and clues from the ill-fated flight and abc's molly hunter is there. good morning, molly. any reaction to this new report? >> reporter: good morning, ryan and reena. we will certainly ask authorities about that today and with this new information,

everyone wants to know if the pilot became incapacitated or was this intentional. this morning, the hundreds of rescue workers and investigators are again being ferried to the crash scene, some dropping in from helicopters. overnight "the new york times" reporting that dramatic revelation from the cockpit voice recorder. authorizes saying they heard voices one of the two pilots leaving the cockpit unable to get in during that deadly eight-minute descent before the plane smashed into the mountain "the times" quotes an investigator you can hear he's trying to smash down the door but there's to response from inside. >> the two main possibility, one, was there a medical condition of the pilot in the cockpit? did he have an emergency and start the descent and then have this medical condition? the other possibility is pilot suicide. could he have locked out the other pilot and decided that he wanted to take his own life and that of the passengers. >> reporter: in the u.s. pies are not left alone in the cockpit. if one leaves a flight attendant takes that spot. this new information adding to

the mystery as the families mourn the 150 people on board emily traveling there. their family calling them two wonderful caring people who meant so much to so many and the germantown gripped by anguish, tears and flowers for those 16 high schoolers and two teachers lost in the crash. today families from halltern will be here to see the recovery efforts firsthand. recovery workers will have to carve a new path to get those bodies down and reena and ryan, while they're determined to do this as quickly as possible it could take weeks, back to you. >> for the team on the ground what are the biggest priorities today? >> reporter: finding that second black box. now, sed french president francis hollande said the casing has been found but not the actual recorder inside.

now, investigators have that first black box as we know which is where this first big "the new york times" revelation came from. but getting that second black box down off the mountain into the hands of investigators should give us more clues. >> perhaps that second black box holds the key and answers some of the many questions here. abc's molly hunter here live near the france crash site. >> stay with us for the latest. live team coverage coming up on "good morning america." well breaking overnight chaos in yemen. a key u.s. ally in the middle east rebels backed by iran have virtually taken over and the u.s.-backed president has left the country, saudi arabia launched air strikes against the rebels overnight. these new pictures of the damage just coming in. the u.s. is providing kilo gisty cal and intelligence support but no fighting forces. the u.s. is taking military action against isis in the iraqi city of tikrit. the bombing marks a significant expansion of the u.s. military role in iraq.

the strikes come at the request of the iraqi prime minister following a stalled three-week battle to take control of tikrit. bowe bergdahl has been charged with desertion. that happened after the dramatic swap for five taliban prisoners. his attorney is asking the public to withhold. jurors have heard testimony about the planning of the attack. an fbi agent testified that anyways, cooker pressure parts and other potential bomb components were found at dzhokhar tsarnaev's family apartment. that discovery happened in a search four days after the bomb blast. defense attorneys contend tsarnaev had not been living in that apartment for more than a year before the attack. they say most of what was found there belonged to tsarnaev's older brother. amanda knox will have to

wait another day to earn will her fate. the highest court postponed the ruling until tomorrow. knox's lawyers are asking that her conviction for the murder of her roommate meredith kercher be overturned calling it a grave judicial error. if the court does uphold her conviction italy could ask the u.s. to extradite her. well also ahead, the bad parking job on capitol hill all of it caught on camera and, of course going viral. >> this is really bad. the case of an apparent missing woman takes a new turn. why she may be the one facing charges after being found alive. plus dash cam drama. a look from inside the police officer's cruiser when he loses control during a high-speed chase.

a megamerger in the works between two iconic brand, kraft foods ss and heinz. it was engineered by warren buffett and brazilian investment company 3g capital. it's worth $28 billion pending approval from federal regulators. most asian markets fell overnight following a stock sell-off on wall street. the dow plunged more than 292 points and starts today trading in negative territory for the year. nasdaq suffered the sharpest losses yesterday nearly 2.5%. the s&p 500 lost 30 points. the sell-off came on the heels of disappointing news about manufacturing. here's some good economic news for baby-sitters. they're making more money. the new survey says national hourly rate for a sitter is now

$13.44. that's up 28% in the last six years. even so nearly 90% of american families say they would give their sitter a raise and if they don't i'll give you a raise. >> it's important. got to tip them well. starbucks is brewing a new treat to celebrating the 20th anniversary of its signature frozen drink. feast your eyes on the birthday cake frappuccino. it is vanilla bean and hazelnut topped with a special raspberry infused whipped cream and the grande size. if you're wondering that's 18 teaspoons of sugar. sames as an entire box of girl scout thin mints. the frat member caught saying racist chants. what he said about the video that got him kicked out of school. how this guy is $7 million richer after a get well card.

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updating our top story this morning, severe storms in oklahoma. a driver in the oklahoma city suburb of moore shooting this scene, a tractor trailer blown on its side by what was thought to be a tornado. at least one person near tulsa was killed in the violent outbreak. schools closed today in hard-hit areas. this morning's road conditions it'll be a wet one out there for the eastern third of the country as well as along the entire gulf coast. slippery around the great lakes and in the northern plains. if you're flying airport delays possible in atlanta and along the northeast corridor from d.c. all the way to boston. the disgraced fraternity member who led a racist chant says he's sorry. >> levi pettit says he's now going to speak out against racism kicked out of the university of oklahoma after the video sparked so much outrage. yesterday he met with community leaders in oklahoma city. >> there are no excuses for my

behavior. i never thought of myself as a racist. i never considered it a possibility. but the bottom line is that the words that were said in that chant were mean hateful and racist. >> the lawmaker who organized yesterday's meeting says she believe's pettit's apology is genuine and that she forgives hip. police in northern california say a woman and the boyfriend who reported she was kidnapped are both under investigation. vallejo police say there is no evidence that denise huskins was kidnapped and although she initially agreed to cooperate police have not heard from her or her family since yesterday morning. they also say her boyfriend, aaron quinn, he's not cooperating and that both of them have plundered valuable resources from the community. >> if you can imagine devoting all of our reorganizations on what i would consider as a wild goose chase, we've essentially wasted all of these resources for really nothing. >> police also say they were

suspicious from the very beginning in part because quinn told them the so-called kidnappers were demanding a ransom of just $8500. and oklahoma police officer says learning a hard lesson is about the wisdom of a high-speed chase dash cam rolling when he took off after a car traveling 94 miles an hour when he lost control and rolled over into a ditch. he wasn't hurt but the $340,000 cruiser badly damaged ainge the high speeding driver well actually got away. a couple in pennsylvania who had been married almost a year are restarting their lives together now that they're millionaires. joseph and jody amorese claim the prize they won on a scratch-off game yesterday. the ticket sent to him by his father in a get well card because he had been recovering from surgery. >> i took my glasses off looking at it and i wound up scratching the rest of them off just to make sure and i was pretty

shocked to say the least and i had surgery so i didn't jump up and down but in my mind i was jumping up and down. >> now you can start. >> thank you dad. 7 million reasons to jump up and down. he works for verizon. she's a social worker at least for right now. well it's that time again, after a couple of days off, ncaa march madness resumes. >> as for last night's hoops here's our guys at espn. >> good morning, with stan verrett, i'm chris hassel. how about the road teams in the nba wednesday night. >> yeah going 12-1. it's the best mark ever for a visiting group of teams on a single night in nba history. houston in that in new orleans. look who is back dwight howard out for two months. but he returned played 16 minutes, 4.7 rebounds that's going to come. james harden to score. harden 25 points 10 assists, 6

rebounds. the rockets win it 95-93. pellicans drop four in a row. old dominion taking on murray state in a thriller. less than ten seconds to go. murray state down three. t.j.sapp to jeffrey moss and we are tied but odu gets another chance and look at trey freeman scooting down the sideline and hitting it at the buzzer. i don't know if he called bank who cares. old dominion wins it 72-69 going to msg in the n.i.t. semis and face stanford tuesday. >> a little march madness n.i.t. style. >> what a buzzer beater. up next in "the pulse" walking away from fame and fortune. big changes for the biggest boy band on the planet and how the fans are reacting. and parking problems. a politician's driving skills under scrutiny after a video surfaces on line. flonase allergy relief nasal spray. this changes everything. new flonase

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♪ time to check out "the pulse" beginning with the breakup that broke twitter. a member of one direction announcing his departure. >> zayn malik says he's leaving the band behind because of stress. the departure comes after the 22-year-old abruptly left one direction's world tour last week. >> forget buddy holly and the big bopper. millions of fans say this is the day the music died. one fan on twitter saying march the 25th, the day the entire world shattered. wait i think it's still here. >> it's still here. >> the world is still here. >> another writing, zayn leaving the band literally ripped a part of my soul away from me. the late night comics couldn't resist. >> it's zayn said after five years he's leaving the focus on his true passion which is not

being shrieked at by a hoard of 12-year-old girls every time he opens a door. >> today zayn malik announced he's officially leaving one direction. they asked him where are you going? and he said another direction. >> oh. one direction band mate harry styles was spotted wiping away tears on stage in jakarta after the announcement. good luck to them. from jakarta to capitol hill which may be one of the worst parking jobs ever. >> you know how hard it is to park next to other cars. the silver car parking straight in despite the angled parking spots being properly used for the other vehicles. now, the person doing the parking is eleanor holmes norton a democrat who represents the district of columbia. >> norton left the car right there for about half an hour before moving it afterwards she said apparently she was a little late for an event. >> yeah. >> happens to all of us.

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>> good morning, everyone i'm matt o'donnell. 4:27, we're following breaking news tornadoes tear through the nation's mid section overnight. homes are destroyed and one is dead. we're tracking patchy fog live on sky 6 in hd. none at the airport here. the accuweather team says get ready for a warmup. the directional graduate among the passengers in the crash in the french alps. one of the pilots was locked out of the cockpit. we'll have more on that coming up next. high school girl to her classmate with a little bit of help from some high-profile friends. >> the invitation came as a huge

surprise to that classmate who was on the highly functio reporter kristin thorne. >> reporter: it was a regular morning for mike pagano until his friend sara cardonski sat next to him. seconds later the jets fanatic got the surprise of his life. >> hey, michael, quick question for you, will you go to the prom with sara. >> reporter: she got nine players from the jets for her special prom invite. >> mike this is t.j. barnes of the new york jets. my friend sara wanted to know if you'll go to prom with her. >> hey, mike this is chris from the new york jets. i have one question for you, will you go to prom with sara. say yes. >> so mike, what do you say, want to go to prom with me? >> yes. [ cheers and applause ]

>> reporter: there's a whole back story here. see, mike asked sara to the prom recently but she already had a date. sara realized she had an opportunity here mike has high functioning autism and sara wanted to do something special for him. >> he really deserves it. he's such a great kid. >> reporter: she explained to her date she wanted to make sure mike wasn't flying solo to the prom and got this idea. she first instagramed jets wide receiver saleem hakeem. >> mike it's saleem hakeem from the new york jets. will you go to prom with sara. >> it took off from there. >> it feels special. i never thought that this would happen. >> i couldn't ask for anything more for him. this is like him winning the gold. >> i wasn't expecting anybody to do that for my son. >> i'm really happy he's happy. >> reporter: i'd say she didn't do half bad. in leavitt ton on long island kristin thorne channel 7, eyewitness news. >> that's going to be a great

prom. >> following breaking stories on this thursday, march 26. disturbing details about the final seconds of the jet line that crashed into the french alps. >> spring tornado season is in full swing as a deadly storm sweeps through the plain states leaving a person dead. >> good morning everyone, thursday, tam is off, nydia han joins us. >> let's