>> your tie matches the weather. >> i like when that happens. >> thanks for watching. >> see you at 6:00. >>> on our broadcast tonight, ferry disaster, a terrible tragedy at sea involving hundreds of high school students missing and feared dead and tonight, the frantic mission to reach anyone trapped and still alive. sticker shock on everything from milk to meat, tonight what is behind some sudden spikes in food prices. >>> wrong diagnosis, it's happening to an alarming number of patients. tonight the warning that it's no longer enough to simply follow doctors' orders. >>> and survivor, she stared down cancer and won and stunned her doctors with what she uncovered in the search for a cure. "nightly news" begins now. >>> from nbc world news headquarters in new york, this is "nbc nightly news" with brian williams. >>> good evening. tonight there are fears we're watching one of the worst

tonight there are fears we're watching one of the worst peacetime disasters in the history of an entire nation. in the waters off south korea tonight, over 280 people, most of them high school students remain unaccounted for after the ferry boat they were riding on sank and a number of survivors report that even as the ship was listing badly to the side, people were told to stay where they were in the vessel and not rush out to the deck. the ferry, a large vessel, almost 500 feet long with a capacity of 900 passengers set sail last night on south korea's coast for an overnight trip to an island tourist destination several hundred miles away. trouble came about 12 hours into the overnight voyage. we get our report tonight from nbc's keir simmons. >> reporter: there was panic. passengers desperate to escape the sinking ship anyway they could. some jumping into the sea, rescuers raced to the scene, 18 helicopters, almost 100 ships.