tom costello on the case. and the eagles star keeping his promise to a young philly fan injured in that philadelphia plane crash. >> this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. >> good evening and welcome. just weeks after fleeing fires that rampaged across southern california residents of burned out communities are facing new danger ahead of a dangerous mudslide threat. the west coast once more in the pass of an atmospheric river bringing heavy rain, wind and mountain snow. white out conditions contributing to a 100-car pile up along a major interstate in oregon with some injuries reported there. back in california charred hill sides weakened by january's fires are primed for potential disaster from february's floods. debris flows forcing new evacuations and warnings as virtually the entire country rides through the back-to-back storms. morgan chesky starts us off tonight from los angeles. >> reporter: yeah lester, good evening. unfortunately theat the atmosp river is causing landslides up and down the pacif

tom costello joins us live with some new reporting. tom, good evening. >> reporter: tom, this happened at 2:45 p.m. in toronto. the response from firefighters immediate. the airport was closed for several hours, just opening now. but amazingly, everybody got out of this plane alive. on the runway in toronto, a terrifying end for delta flight 4819. >> our plane crashed. it's upside down. >> reporter: lying upside down on the runway, an endeavor air regional jet had just arrived from minneapolis in gusty winds when something went terribly wrong. as thick black smoke poured from the plane, firefighters smothered the scene in fog. the right wing ripped off, the fuselage bearing what appear to be skid or soot marks. >> everything, drop it! come on! >> reporter: all 80 people on board managed to escape through the emergency exits. >> i was walking and i could see crj that is possibly crashed on the airport. the airplane flipped. >> reporter: 18 people injured and transported to area hospitals, including two airlifted to trauma centers, one ch

joining me now is nbc news senior correspondent tom costello and nbc news aviation analyst john cox. tom, first to you. what are we learning from this new video? and as we await, await this news conference? what do investigators might what might they have found so far? >> yeah. and by the way, we believe it will be the airport authority that holds the news conference there in toronto momentarily. listen, i think this video that you just aired is going to be critical for the investigation and may be the most critical piece of evidence thus far, because it clearly shows that this plane came in for what appeared to be a normal landing, suddenly hits hard. and then right there you see that the right wing breaks away. it appears the landing gear gave way on the right side at least. and then, as you know, fuel is stored on the wing. and very quickly we had a fire break out. that will be a very big lead for investigators as they get hold of the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder, trying to determine the sequence of events. did the wind play any role? there were gusts of wind

it gets priority, lester. >> tom costello, thank you. >>> now to the high-stakes talks in germany. what president trump says will kick off peace negotiations to end the war in ukraine. but there has been confusion among world leaders about where the u.s. stands. and in a new interview with nbc news, ukraine's president delivering a stark warning about what will happen if the u.s. stops military aid. here's andrea mitchell. >> reporter: overnight, a russian drone striking the chernobyl nuclear plant. u.n. inspectors say no sign of a radiation release. but russia's attacks and ongoing reminder of the war's toll on ukraine. as world leaders gathered in munich about peace talks to end the conflict. ukraine's president zelenskyy meeting with vice president vance and secretary of state rubio. >> we want the war to come to a close. we want the killing to stop, but we want to achieve a durable, lasting peace. >> reporter: but after president trump said this week russian president putin told him he wants peace, zelenskyy said he told president trump putin is lying. >> i said to him that he

here is tom costello. >> be advised, conducting first lift. >> reporter: it was just before 10:00 a.m. when recovery teams managed to lift one of the american eagle's engines out of the potomac river. >> debris from the water to be out here on the eastern shore. >> reporter: a flotilla of boats, cranes, and divers working to raise pieces of the fuselage, the windows still visible and recover the remains of the last 12 of the 67 people who died in that midair crash with an army helicopter. new ntsb drone video shows the wreckage of both the plane and the black hawk resting in the potomac. ntsb investigators are hoping the helicopter's black box will reveal its altitude before the crash. air traffic control radar indicated it was at 200 feet, the maximum allowed for choppers. but the plane's black box shows the crash happened at roughly 325 feet. >> there are all kinds of reasons that you could deviate from an altitude. you know, something as simple as a flock of birds is in front of you, or you may deviate if you see something that's an obstacle or other threat to your flight. >> repor

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reporter: tom costello, nbc news. could you talk about the emotional toll that this must take on these divers who are in the water and trying to recover the remains of these victims and do it as you have said over and over again in a dignified manner, but presumably you are dealing with children and parents and families. i'm just wondering what this does to the divers in the water. >> so the question was about the emotional toll that this takes on the divers and first responders. this is tragic. we have had pure support -- pee4r support in place since the first hours of the incident to provide the additional help they need and we will continue with that for the rest of our careers if necessary to provide them that support. it is tragic, everything imaginable you can think of, that is what they are dealing with day in and day out. we're going to continue to provide support to them. yes, sir? reporter: can you describe how you came up with a plan to strategically take out each of those elements that you just described?

that was tom costello reporting for us.ow the investigation is going to be led by the canadian transportation safety board, but it will be getting help from both the faa and the ntsb in the united states on this presidents day. thousands of people nationwide spent the holiday protesting president trump and elon musk. more than a thousand protesters rallied in downtown san jose, proclaiming it not my presidents day. they expressed anger over the series of executive orders the president has signed since taking office last month in san francisco. about 1500 protesters at civic center plaza. many say they're shocked the president's orders have led to mass layoffs at several federal government agencies and at the nearby tesla dealership in san francisco. this group focused on tesla ceo elon musk, who mr. trump put in charge of the department of government efficiency. among the people in this group, some national parks employees who were recently laid off. i don't get paid a lot. i like being outside. i like doing the work. that'

let's bring in tom costello, nbc news senior correspondent covering aviation. his crash? >> joy. >> we have a major. >> story developing. >> unfortunately, it is yet another plane crash happening at this hour. it is in. north philadelphia, not far from the roosevelt mall. >> the faa just. >> releasing a status update. >> a learjet 55. >> says the. >> faa crashed around 6:30 p.m. >> local time. >> on friday after departing. northeast philadelphia airport. there were two people on board. the plane. >> was en route to. >> springfield-branson national airport. the faa. >> and. >> ntsb will investigate. our affiliate in philadelphia is reporting that this was a medevac plane of some sort. again, the faa saying it was a learjet. it went down. and apparently, according to our affiliate, there are reports of multiple houses that may have been hit in this. in this crash, the philly pd, philly fire department all responding, as you would expect. and the governor is saying that he has spoken as well with the mayor and the team is coordinating for all state resources to hea

rally around that family who nasa sa supposed to be a week long -- joining is now, correspondent tom costellome a few days early. what changed here and why hasn't it happened sooner? >> reporter: i think you're right to underscore a few days early. make a week or so early. not a lot has changed. bottom line they've been stuck on the space station since september but they've been waiting for a ride home. they had to come back with crew nine. you can't come back early. only so many trips up and to the space station and back because it costs a fortune to go up and back. they had to rotate back to earth when the right crew was rotating back up. that was supposed to happen in february. that mission was delayed. now spacex has essentially substituted another rocket so they will go up to the space station with a new crew that allows crew nine, the old crew, with butch and suni, to come back down. if that's all a bit confusing and seems like what's the hold up? here's what nasa says in a statement. they make the point things are fluid in space and happens all the time. the human space flight is full

. >> tom costello joins us now. that these incidents have anything in common, but still a string of incidents has travelers on edge. >> i think you're absolutely right. we need to underscore none of these incidents appear to have anything in common. it had been 16 years since the last fatal commercial plane crash in this country but the recent rash of crashes appears to be coincidental and flying is still very safe. the terrifying landing for delta flight 4819 -- >> our plane crashed. it's upside down. >> reporter: -- comes after a string of fatal aviation crashes over the past three weeks. >> debris from the water to fbi here on the eastern shore. >> reporter: january 29th an army blackhawk helicopter slammed into an american eagle regional jet over the potomac river, 67 people killed. the deadliest in a quarter century. the ntsb says the chopper pilots may not have heard air traffic control instructions to pass behind the jet and may have had bad altitude data. january 31st, a medevac learjet crashed in northeast

correspondent tom costello. >> against the backdrop of reagan national airport, crews are battling gustynd pulling the wreckage of the merkin airlines 5332 from the potomac river. emerging from the water on monday, the planes right engine, fuselage, and wings. >> it is tragic. everything imaginable they can think about. >> newly released video shows the jetliner. the investigation focused on how the collision happened. it was well above the 200 feet maximum allowed for helicopters. >> it is important for us to not speculate because there are all kinds of reasons that you could deviate from an altitude. >>> for now, the airspace near the airport remains close to all helicopters except police and medevac choppers. >> everything at risk to aviation. taking a layer of risk out of it and taking it away mitigates that risk. spoke earlier in the day, the nation's new transportation secretary, sean duffy visited another crash. all six people were killed on board a learjet 365. investigators say that at least 24 were injured, including two in critical condition. >> if you look at the impact and h

reporter: tom costello with nbc news. thank you for the update. you are looking into the possibility there may have been a malfunction in terms of the accuracy of the altimeter readings in the cockpit for the black hawk helicopter. >> one more time. >> do i understand correctly you are looking into the possibility there may have been bad data and, therefore, inaccurate readings inside the cockpit of the chopper. >> we are looking at the possibility of maybe bad data. were they seeing something different in the cockpit? that differs from the fdr data that was radio altimeter. >> they may have thought they were at one altitude when they were at a different attitude? what's possibly. we have a lot of work to do until we get to that. >> how critical is the funding -- is it that the crew could have been wearing goggles and how will that affect the investigation? >> how critical is the finding the crew could have been wearing night vision goggles? that's part of our investigation. it will be a factor in our visibility study. we will see what was possibl

joining me now are nbc news senior correspondent tom costello and former faa and ntsb investigator jeff guzzetti. so, tom, this has been just horrendous, i know. i can't even imagine how hard you and everyone has been working on all of this to try to get to the bottom of it. in the dc crash, what are we learning now about both aircraft's altitude? i heard your reporting that the helicopter was at least 100ft above the required altitude. i guess they'll know more from the black box. >> well, there's. >> that's exactly right. there's a. >> discrepancy here. >> but can. >> i first take you. >> out onto the river to show you what's happening at this. >> very moment? >> because this. >> morning we've. >> had salvage. teams out there. >> from the u.s. army corps of engineers working with the coast guard, metropolitan dc fire and police, as well as a flotilla, a. flotilla of teams from around the. greater washington, d.c. area. and there you see right there a piece of wreckage. >> that has. >> been already. >> pulled up. >> we've already. seen them pull. >> up a one of the engines from. >> the

tom costello joins us. tom, what have you learned? >> reporter: yeah, the faa and the ntsb are investigating what happened on the runway at seattle's sea-tac airport. the wing of a japan airlines 787 sliced into the tail of a delta airlines 737 waiting to be de-iced. delta says there were no injuries. and one week after that fatal crash at reagan national airport the faa says it will no longer allow a helicopter and civilian aircraft to share the same airspace at the same time around reagan national airport. transportation secretary sean duffy says the number of military helicopters flying around d.c. will have to be reduced. >> if we have generals who are flying in helicopters for convenience through this airspace, that's unacceptable. get in a damn suburban and drive. you don't need to take a helicopter. >> reporter: duffy says the administration is working to staff up air traffic control facilities and elon musk says his doge team will make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system. his words. lester? >> all right, to

i want to get back to tom costello. transported and one person had to be air lifted to a trauma center. tom, have we heardrd fm the airline, any more statements coming out from the airport about what happened here in toronto. >> the airport has tweeted out the following, they had a plane crash there involving a delta flight coming in from minneapolis and making the point that has everyone has been accounted for, passengers as well as crew members. we heard from the union representing the flight attendants they're responding to toronto to assist their members working that flight, again this is minneapolis into toronto, kind of a regular, hourly flight that goes back and forth into, from the united states into toronto on a regular basis, i did want to underscore, to pick up on the conversation you were just having, in the terms of the recent string of aviation incidents this will raise the concern about faa staflg. air traffic control staffing. this is a canadian air traffic control and this is under canadian authority onc

let's start tonight with tom costello. >> reporter: the black boxes from the regional jet and the blackhawk helicopter are at the ntsb lab in dc for a complete read out. >> we have a high level of confidence that we will get a full download in the near future. >> reporter: divers spent the day working to recover victims remains. as of this morning 41 bodies have been recovered. 28 positively identified. victims still in the water, a salvage team will work to raise the fuselage. >> for us to raise the remains, we are going to need to get the fuselage out of the water>> reporter: on any day 100 helicopters fly over and around reagan airport. new video which first aired on cnn offers a more clear view of the crash. today president trump said the chopper was flying too high. >> it was above the 200 limit by double. >> reporter: the chopper may have been flying at 350 to 400 feet when it crashed into the plane. >> you have to be 200 feet and below. >> reporter: he says the blackhawk was clearly flying out of its zone. he says air traffic controllers should have been much more direct in the comma

tom. >> madam chair tom. >> costello with. >> nbc news.ou. >> for the update. >> do we understand correctly, you're looking into the possibility. >> that there. >> may have been, i underscore, may. >> have been a. >> malfunction in terms of the accuracy of the altimeter readings inside the cockpit for the black hawk helicopter. >> one more time. >> do i understand correctly, you're looking into the possibility that there may have been bad data and therefore inaccurate readings inside the cockpit of the chopper or altitude for the pilots to read? >> that's correct. we are looking at the possibility of there may be bad data we're looking at. are were they seeing something different in the cockpit that differs from the fdr data, which was radio altimeter? >> in other words, they may have thought they were at one altitude when in truth they were at a different. >> it's possible, but we have a lot of work to do till we get to that. >> one thing with cnn, how critical is the finding that the crew could have been wearing night vision goggles, and

nbc's tom costello is covering everything from this story in washington. and also with me is former faa and ntsb investigator, as well as msnbc aviation analyst jeff guzzetti. tom, what's the latest that we were learning on this crash and investigation? it seemed like that briefing was light on details from the president of the airport there. >> yes, but they are sticking to the letter of the at least in the united states, the letter of the law. and i would presume in canada, two in that the only people who can comment on an investigation once it's active, in fact, are the investigators. so that would be the transportation safety board of canada and probably also nav canada. should they actually get involved in making public statements? i did think what was important here is you heard from the commanders saying that they were up against a heavy fire conditions. when they arrived, they immediately put foam on that fire. they fire response, as we have suggested, was very, very fast. praising the flight attendants as well for keeping cool under pressure and ge

nbc news senior aviation correspondent tom costello joins us now. e do we know about this one? you can see it happen there on the video. >> reporter: yeah, it's terrifying. that was a learjet 35-a that as you mentioned is owned by vince neil from motley crue. it slammed into a gulfstream g-200. it came in for landing. apparently the nose gear or landing gear collapsed and so as a result, it went off the side of the runway slamming into the private plane. nobody was on the other private plane. but as you suggested, one person was killed onboard that original learjet that was making the landing. three people injured. we're told that vince neil from motley crue was not on board. but i'm glad you underscored the fact these are unrelated aviation incidents we have had over the course of the past two weeks. all of them serious, but no real tie, if you will, no thread connecting them all. we begin with, of course, that situation here in washington, when you had a regional jet hit by an army helicopter. 67 people dead. and then we had the medevac plane crash

nbc's tom costello is with us this morning. both of the airplane and of the helicopter. what do we know so far? >> yeah. >> and actually. >> can i can i show you what i think we have. >> cued up already is video from. >> this morning of the salvage teams out there on the water. >> pulling up one of the aircraft. engines from. this regional. >> jet, the. american airlines regional jet. they've been out there since daybreak. and at about 10 a.m. they actually removed. there you have it. one of the engines from that regional jet. >> and they need to. >> pull hopefully the entire regional. >> jet up. and it may be. >> coming up. >> in pieces. >> and as you. >> suggested. >> this is a. >> very delicate operation because they. >> believe that there still may be 12 victims inside that jet. they've recovered 55. >> of those. >> people who died. 12 remain, they. >> believe, on. >> the water and. presumably inside the fuselage. >> that's the. >> focus today. >> and they promise. when they. >> come. >> across any victims, it will be a ver

nbc's senior correspondent tom costello is at ronald reagan international. the things that we've been waiting for is a readout of the black box data recorder from the helicopter. what do we know about that right now? >> yeah, that's. >> going to be delayed. and the reason for that is the ntsb now says it wants to completely raise the, the chopper itself, the black hawk chopper chopper so it can evaluate the types of hardware. on that helicopter and then make sure that it has a full and complete understanding of exactly the flight data recorder data on the altitude. and they will look at the altimeter and the type of altimeter on board that chopper. so that's going to take probably until the end of the week at the earliest. until we do get that ads-b data, that that data specifically from the black hawk helicopter on what the what the altitude was like when it hit appears to have hit the jet, the passenger jet, the passenger jets. black box suggests it happened at about 325ft. as for what's happening right now, we have seen large chunks of the plane coming ou

tom costello has more. >> reporter: two weeks after the mid-air crash killed 67 people ntsb investigators say the army helicopter's black box indicates the radio's altimeter showed 278 feet at the time of the crash, 7 feet above the limit for helicopters, but the chopper pilots may not have known because of bad data. >> they may thought they were at one altitude and in truth they were at a different altitude. >> reporter: the chopper crew may not have heard a critical message from air traffic control to pass behind the regional t. one of the chopper pilots keyed the mic over the words pass behind the -- the rj pilots may have tried to avoid the impact with a dramatic pitch up a second before impact. >> any indication the crew realized they might be hit? >> there was an indication. we see a pitch up of the air craft. >> reporter: helicopters in and around reagan national are required to hug the east side of the potomac under 200 feet near dca. >> they had about one second until impact. there was no chance for them to get out of the way. >> reporter: tim lilly is first officer's sam lilly's

. >> joining us now, nbc's tom costello and captain andre simmons, a retired commercial pilot. tom, what are we learning today? and, you know, i just been thinking, what what incredible fortune and luck. this didn't seem like it could end up well. and yet, you know, just amazing. >> well. >> i think. >> you're. >> absolutely right. and this. >> is going. >> to go. >> down as. >> a case study in how. >> to survive. >> a plane. >> but when you. >> dissect the video that you. just showed. >> that's going to be critical. >> for. >> investigators because it. >> shows that plane. >> coming in. >> and investigators are. >> going. >> to want to. >> know how fast. >> and how. >> hard and what was the. angle of descent, if you will. as that plane came in and touched down on the runway. >> because it. >> certainly appears. >> by looking at that video of the plane crash, the actual plane crash as it happened, that as it came. >> down hard, the right. >> wing seemed to hit the runway. >> you then had immediately a fuel ignited. >> as you know, the fuel is in the wing. the wing separates from

tom costello has late word of this desperate search for the missing aircraft, tom?> reporter: a late update, the coast guard says they have found the wreckage of this flight that's been missing for more than 24 hours and unfortately all 10 people on board were found deceased. the plane broken up on what appears to be a rocky and snowy patch. the u.s. ntsb has dispatched a go team. >> in the vast expanse of the bering sea off alaska, around- the-clock search for a small commuter plane headed north. it was 3:18 p.m. thursday when bearing air flight 445 suddenly went off radar roughly 12 miles offshore, no emergency locator transmissions from the plane. at noon, the coast guard announced search teams have spotted something. >> at this time, there's been some sort of an item of interest that has been identified by another aircraft. >> the cessna was flying to nome, alaska with nine passengers and a single pilot, the fire department posting that the pilot told controllers he intended to enter a holding pattern while waiting for the runway to be cleared. dio shows the con

tom costello, nbc news. >> all right. thank you so much, tom, for that report.this date december 22nd, 2032, because that's when scientists warn an asteroid big enough to destroy an entire city could potentially make impact with earth. right now, the asteroid is about the size of the eiffel tower, and it has a 3.1% chance of striking earth. that's according to new data from nasa. that translates to about 1 in 32 odds, making it the most threatening space rock ever recorded by modern forecasting. but experts say there's no need to raise any alarms right now, saying it's not a crisis at this point. it's a very, very rare event. i don't know if you see the movie armageddon, i'm just saying. anyway, coming up, a major reversal. the u.s. department of agriculture revealing it mistakenly fired employees working to combat the for the bird flu outbreak. what happened and how they're trying to get them back. and next hour, new details on a shocking story out of georgia, where a woman is now suing a fertility clinic, saying it implanted the wrong embryo and she's carrying

nbc's tom costello explains. >> reporter: with the wreckage of the jet still resting on a toronto runway, aviation experts say the fact everyone survived is due in no small part to the flight attendants. >> drop it. >> reporter: who remained composed yet in charge ordering passengers to wait until they assured it was safe to evacuate, then move. >> they announced not to get out of their seats. people were hanging there for -- i can't remember how long. just about a minute. then they were like, okay, get down. >> reporter: veteran flight attendants call it a textbook response. >> difficult. this flight attendant had to find the opening, make the hole d shout the commands to get people out safely. >> reporter: textbook, the firefighting response. required to be on scene within three minutes. an m.i.t. study shows fatal commercial plane crashes are rare. one in 13.7 million passenger boardings globally. >> release seat belts. leave everything. >> reporter: like other airlines, delta flight attendants go through weeks of intense training. recreating the chaos of an emergency. the faa require

our tom costello has late word on this desperate search. >> it's breaking as we speak. the u.t announcing it has located the wreckage of this plane. tbls it's the same plane. it's said to be 34 miles southeast of nome, alaska. three people were inside. they were all deceased. no mention of the oven seven on board. other seven on board. in the vast expanse of the bering sea off alaska, around the clock search for a small commuter plane headed north. >> 45 check your altitude immediately. >> reporter: it was 3:18 p.m. when bering air went off radar, roughly 12 miles offshore. no emergency locater transmissions from the plane. at noon today the coast guard announced search teams have spotted something. >> at this time, there has been some sort of item of interest that has been identified by another aircraft. >> reporter: the cessna of grand caravan was flying to nome, alaska, with nine passengers and a single pilot. the nome fire department posting the pilot told controllers he intended to enter a holding pattern while waiting for the runway to clear. time lapse video shows the c

nbc's tom costello for that reporting. still ahead, we're going to turn to sports.e nfl hall of famer needs a new team if he wants to keep playing. we're going to tell you who we're talking about. plus, we'll show you another incredible buzzer beater in college basketball. all of that and a check on the weekend weather forecast when we come right back. but first as always we want to know why are you awake with us? email your reasons to way too early@msnbc.com or tell me on social media. i'm ali vitali. you can use the hashtag way too early. we'll read our favorite early. we'll read our favorite answers coming up in the show. here's to getting better with age. here's to beating these two every thursday. help fuel today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need, and the flavor you love. so, here's to now... now available: boost max! power e*trade's easy-to-use tools make complex trading less complicated. custom scans help you find new trading opportunities, while an earnings tool helps you plan your trades and stay on top of the market. e*trade from morgan

tom costello reports it comes as elon musk is poised to help overhaul air traffic control. >> reporterght days after that midair crash over the potomac -- >> rescue 1 requesting permission to search the shoreline for debris. >> reporter: recovery teams today raised the army helicopter from the river, critical to the investigation. investigators believe it was flying above its designated altitude before the crash. with two runways out of service, the faa has notified airlines that it's cutting the number of arrivals from 28 to 26 per hour at reagan national with investigators concerned for air traffic controllers, who have an increased level of stress while also having a front row view of the accident recovery. today, president trump suggested the nation's antiquated atc system played a role in the accident. >> we should have had better equipment. we don't. we have obsolete equipment. >> reporter: the new transportation secretary, sean duffy. >> i had a conversation with elon musk yesterday. >> reporter: says elon musk will help overhaul air traffic control, which the faa has spent year

tom costello on the case. eagles star keeping his promise to a young super fan injured in that philly plane crash. young philly fan >> this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. >> good evening and welcome. just weeks after fleeing fires that rampaged across southern california residents of burned out communities are facing new danger ahead of a dangerous mudslide threat. the west coast once more in the pass of an atmospheric river bringing heavy rain, wind and mountain snow. white out conditions contributing to a 100-car pile up along a major interstate in oregon with some injuries reported there. back in california charred hill sides weakened by january's fires are primed for potential disaster from february's floods. debris flows forcing new evacuations and warnings as th virtually the entire country

>> tom costello for us there at reagan national. thank you. >>> we turn now to a chaotic scene. it was caught on camera in a new mexico courtroom. it happened at a hearing for an accused murderer. you can see, a relative of the victim leapt over a partition and rushed the suspect, sparking a fight that happened right there under the judge's bench. nbc's liz kreutz has the story this morning. liz, good morning. >> hey, savannah, good morning. this video is shocking, but it is not the first time we have seen safety compromised in a courtroom. this frightening incident happened friday morning during a hearing and it lasted for nearly a minute and a half. what started as a routine hearing friday morning in albuquerque, quickly erupting into chaos when a man got up from his seat in a courtroom, jumped a partition and tackled the defendant right in front of the judge. the brazen attack caught by courtroom cameras. the defendant, ortiz is accused of fatally shooting his 23-year-old ex-girlfriend last january and has pleaded not guilty. the

. >> let's bring in tom costello. he covers aviation.it's winter, we think about ice, wind, snow in toronto. where are investigators looking this morning? >> reporter: i've got to say, i think this video that we've now got that you showed at the top of the show will be the critical piece of evidence, because it now suggests that this plane may have come down and hit the runway very hard. when that happened, it lost its landing gear and then you saw, in fact, the plane started to burst into flames. the landing gear collapsed. you saw the wing came down, hit hard. and then you had the fire from the jet fuel catching fire. so this video is critical now. this is what the ntsb in canada will be focused on. they will want to see the black boxes. they want to see exactly what was the wind the plane was dealing where at -- with at that very minute, and how did it bank or roll, as you will, and affect the landing. >> how rare is it to see something like this? you just mentioned the video there. you can kind of in tu -- intuite what's happening. >

tom costello joins us now. it seems every few days we're talking about a new aviation accident. >> reporter: yeah, that's right, and it's very concerning. that's what aviation safety experts have been warning about for years, close calls at the nation's airports and in the last week we've had that terrifying crash in philadelphia, the midair crash here in washington with the horrific loss of life, and an unrelated but serious incident now in seattle. >> oh, my god. >> reporter: it happened mid morning at seattle's seatac airport. the wing of a japan airlines dreamliner sliced into the tail of a delta airlines 737. >> you can expect to hold for a little bit here. japan is blocking the way. >> reporter: they say there were no injuries. jal apologized. the faa says it happened in an area not under air traffic control. while not classified as a so-called runway incursion, the ntsb and faa have been working to reduce airport close calls. more than 1,600 incursions at airports last year alone. seven classified as the

. >> sandra: shall we listen to tom costello? in his own words?trol tower and canadian authority once it crosses the border and yet as you know this talk about staff cuts at the faa as a part of president trump's effort to trim down the federal workforce. and yet as you also know the faa complaining for years that they are understaffed and critical job positions, especially air traffic control. >> sandra: that is pretty hard to believe sean duffy said there has been 400 firings out of 45,000 staffers. somehow that is what led to this? a fraction of a fraction, sandra and again this is canadian is canadian airspace an runway and canadian air traffic. the u.s. had nothing to do what happen on the plane. to the pack the democrats and the media playing this blame game when we don't know what happened. this was 24 hours ago this happen appear to this could have been may bid the plane diverted to another airport and the winds were high and ice on the granting. these are questions and we don't have definitive answers and the blame game someone like coste

tom costello covers aviation and has the latest on both incidents. >> reporter: developments in aviation begin with sea-tac airport in seattle yesterday, a 787 clipped the tail, in fact sliced into the tail of a 737 from delta air lines. that 737 was waiting to de-ice and what happened is the japan airlines 787, its wing literally cut into the tail. no injuries. japan airlines has apologized. the faa and ntsb are looking into it. now to washington and reagan national airport after that crash last week with 67 people who died in the water. today president trump is talking about the need to dramatically upgrade the nation's air traffic control system with new computerized technology. he will get no disagreement on that. that has been a push for years. the trouble is congress hasn't allocated the money. now president trump and elon musk say it is time for a rapid safety upgrade. elon musk's doge team set to be moving on that. now, the new transportation secretary holding a news conference this afternoon as already the faa has slowed the pace of flights into reagan national airport because t

tom costello has the latest. >> so it was a week ago today that horrific crash occurred right off ofawk helicopter, killing everybody on board. all 67 people have been pulled from the water, there remains turned over to the medical examiner. it literally took until last night before they were able to recover all of the remains from this horrific crash. they have now spent the better part of a week recovering debris from the potomac river. that includes the tail, wings, fuselage, also a big piece of the cockpit, they are gathering all of the wreckage and putting it on a barge and then they are going to eventually bring the barge to shore and put all of the wreckage in a hangar for ntsb investigators. separately the ntsb and the army corps of engineer's are pending to lift the black hawk chopper out of the water here in washington, d.c. and then they will remove that, also to a nearby hanger, that chopper will be critical because they want to do a full analysis, understanding all of the equipment on board before they release the black hawk data, and we can tell you the ntsb now says th

nbc's tom costello is following this story for us. so what happens now? tom? is that they. >> are. >> going to come back in march. >> but maybe about a. >> week or two. >> earlier than. >> originally thought. president trump has been pushing elon musk to. >> try to. >> bring them back. >> even sooner. >> than originally planned. >> and so now spacex is. >> swapping out a newer. >> rocket for. >> an older rocket. they're going to go up to the space station as originally planned, and they're going to go into a crew rotation. chris. >> you know, nothing. >> is simple when it comes to nasa and spacex. >> here's what's happening. they have been up on the space station. >> as you know. >> since september. right. >> because their. >> boeing starliner ship. >> nasa didn't feel comfortable. >> in bringing them back. >> on starliner. so they sent. up crew. >> nine on a. spacex rocket. >> in september for their six month rotation on the space station. butch and sunny joined crew nine. they had to stay on the station because crew nine had an. assignment on the space stati