we have a team in place covering this horrible tragedy starting with bill neely in southern france. bill? >> reporter: good evening, lester. this is a crash that has experts baffled. a plane flying apparently normally in good weather that suddenly plummets more than 30,000 feet in ten minutes. unimaginable for those onboard. i'm at rescue headquarters today, high up in these mountains. the search began for clues and for the dead. on a rugged french mountainside in thousands of scattered pieces, the remains of a crashed plane. here and there, rescuers. but there was no one left alive to rescue. the airbus with 150 people onboard had simply disintegrated on impact. searchers, though, did find the cockpit voice recorder. this was the doomed aircraft operated by the low-cost airline germanwings. flight 9525 took off from barcelona at 10:00 this morning, climbing normally to a cruising altitude of 38,000 feet at 10:27. but minutes later, it began an unexplained descent over the alps. for eight minutes the pilots sent no distress signal. flight radar 24 says it lost contact with the plane

we begin again tonight with nbc's bill neely. he's in the french alps. bill. >> reporter: good evening, peter. here in france and in germany they are still searching for bodies, for clues and for answers to the question, what on earth drove this man to commit mass murder? well, now a young german woman may have provided them with some clues. day five and the mountain still holds secrets the investigators are hunting for. but they're focused too on the secrets of the man who caused all this. co-pilot andreas lubitz hid medical problems from the airline he worked for, but was more candid with a flight attendant who said she was his former girlfriend. in an interview with germany's best-selling tabloid newspaper. she claimed lubitz said last year, one day i'm going to do something that will change the whole system and then everyone will know my name. she'd flown with lubitz for several months and said he had health problems and felt pressured by work. nbc news can't confirm her allegations, but investigators are now focusing on his mental state and medical r

we have two reports beginning with bill neely at the staging area in the french alps. bill, what's the latest from there? >> reporter: good evening, lester. investigators are confident they will find the cause of this crash after hearing those final sounds from the cockpit. the victims of this tragedy were from 18 countries including the u.s. their grieving relatives are beginning to arrive here in the alps, close to a site that is a picture of horror. it's difficult and dangerous to get to the wreckage. searchers are wenched in, helicopters can't land, the debris smoldering. this is a mass grave. the plane is barely identifiable. some windows here, a tire there. the wings and cockpit in a thousand pieces. the voices recorded in the cockpit on a damaged black box have been analyzed, but investigators say they still don't know what caused the crash. the second flight recorder's casing has been found, but not the contents. the names of many on board have emerged. three americans died. two of them identified as emily selke, a drexel university graduate, and her mother yvon

let's begin with bill neely in southern france. bill, we are all left sick over this. >> reporter: yes, indeed. good evening, lester. this was one of the most stunning announcements in aviation history. what we still don't know is why the co-pilot did it. how he did it is now clear. in total silence he deliberately programmed not just his own death but the deaths of his colleagues and of his trusting passengers. the harrowing search for the remains of the dead intensified today at the scene of what was believed to be a tragic accident. not anymore. this is the site of a mass murder. the french prosecutor blaming this man, the 27-year-old german co-pilot andreas lubitz. his intention was to destroy this plane, he insisted. he deliberately made it lose altitude. his evidence is from the plane's cockpit from the battered voice recorder found in the wreckage that allowed investigators to hear the cockpit sounds. the plane flying from barcelona had reached its cruising altitude when the pilot is heard leaving the cockpit. he tried to get

>> bill neely in iraq tonight. bill thank you. >>> the paris supermarket that was the target of a deadly terror attack reopened its doors today. the kosher store had been closed since the january siege that killed four hostages. the gunmen had pledged allegiance to isis and had links to the two men responsible for the charlie hebdo attacks just days earlier. today the market's owner called the reopening a symbol of a community that would not be defeated. >>> tonight the high stakes negotiations with iran resume over that country's nuclear program, but while there is hope for a historic agreement, here at home they're also mounting tensions with the obama administration and congressional republicans increasingly divided over the issue. kristen welker has our report tonight. >> reporter: secretary kerry arrived in switzerland today to resume nuclear talks with iran. the west wants a deal to limit the number of centrifuges iran can use to enrich uranium and remove most stockpiles of their existing fuel in exchange for

bill neely, nbc news in northern iraq. >>> we have late word tonight that another american has tested positive for ebola and will be flown to the u.s. tomorrow for treatment. this patient was apparently infected while volunteering in sierra leone and will be treated at the nih facility in bethesda, maryland. eight other americans have been infected with ebola and survived. >>> the university of oklahoma storied football team making a statement without saying a word today. they staged a silent protest on their field over the video of ou fraternity members chanting racist slurs. that fraternity, sigma alpha epsilon, has been booted off campus. one football recruit has already rescinded his commitment to the school. >>> there's more to tell you about here tonight. don't let this happen to you. how online scammers are stealing tax refunds and what you can do to protect yourself. >>> also, dust off the boxes in the closet. why board games are making a big comeback. >>> a scam involving phone calls from fake irs agents has cost americans $15 million since 2013. federal investigators announc

once again we begin in southern france with nbc's bill neely. >> reporter: from his parents' home on a dead end street, and from his own apartment, the things andreas lubitz kept hidden are emerging. torn-up doctors' notes declaring him unfit to work for days, including the day he crashed the plane. notes he should have given to the airline. "the torn-up sick notes," says the prosecutor "support our assumption that he hid his illness." investigators are now analyzing reports that lubitz suffered from depression. he was examined here exactly two weeks before the crash, but the hospital denied they treated him for depression. his remains lie with those he killed. searchers finding more than 400 body parts, but no body intact. more families of the dead came to a memorial near the site today, a wind-swept place of flowers and the faces of the lost. many relatives angry. >> they are angry. they want to cry. it's a mix of emotions. >> reporter: including pity, felt by the father of one of the three american victims, robert oliver. >> i don't feel anger. i'm really sad for the father -- the

nbc's bill neely with more tonight from northern iraq. >> reporter: it's a decisive moment.raqi fighters surrounding tikrit trying to drive isis out of a major city for the first time. they've begun slowly to push into the city that gave birth to iraq's former dictator saddam hussein. but outnumbering the flags of iraq's army are those of shiite militias, a rainbow that's alarming the u.s. because these are men armed, trained and backed by iran. directing them from tikrit is the head of the iranian revolutionary guards elite force. america's top general told congress today that of the 24,000 men attacking tikrit, 20,000 are iranian-backed. >> the activities of the iranians to support for the iraqis security forces is a positive thing in military terms against isil. but we are all concerned about what happens after the drums stop beating and isil is defeated. >> reporter: but the u.s. is an onlooker watching iran's men from the sidelines, no air strikes here, no help. the u.s. believes tikrit will fall. and fears the iranian-backed shiite militias could go on the rampage agai

our bill neely was with them as they fought with kurdish forces outside erbil. >> reporter: war with isis, kurdish troops in a frontline battle with an enemy that took their land. they are taking it back. it began with coalition air strikes hitting isis in three villages. more than 100 kurdish troops move in. with them, a half dozen americans. veterans of the war in iraq, back as volunteers. some didn't want to be identified. the next village? >> the next village. >> reporter: they target the black isis flag in a fourth village. as they move in, a humvee spots three suspected isis fighters running and gives chase. later they reported three dead. the kurds suffer casualties, too. their lead humvee hit by a hidden bomb. isis has booby-trapped roads and buildings, but the village appears secure. then isis hits back. the kurds have taken that village, but there is gunfire now and a battle going on. the kurds have decided to make a retreat. there is a frantic pullback. isis may have lost ground, but they're not beaten. >> they're everywhere. >> reporter: this is going to take time. >> yes

once again tonight, bill neely leads our coverage from southern france. >> reporter: inside the head of andreas lubitz was a troubled mind. he'd always dreamed of flying, but it's clear he also considered killing himself. years before he qualified, he'd been receiving therapy. on his mind, suicide. >> treatment of a psychotherapist because of what is documented as being suicidal. >> reporter: he'd seen doctors just before the crash and in recent years, said the prosecutor. but there was no record of any more suicidal tendencies or aggression. evidence from his apartment show he tried to hide his medical condition from the airline. investigators are now examining reports that condition was bipolar disorder, or manic depression. his employers at lufthansa now face more questions. did they know about his suicidal thoughts? and if they did, why did they believe they were all in the past? because this is what his boss said of lubitz last week. he was 100% fit to fly, he says, without any restrictions. the pain of the bereaved families is already immense. an apparent leak of the cockpit vo

nbc's bill neely is at the crash site this morning. what are the new developments? >> reporter: good morning, dara. i think people here are still reeling from the chronology that you've just read. still wondering why, how, this copilot could possibly have done this. of course that hasn't stopped the search effort all morning for the last few hours. the helicopters behind me have been flying overhead. going to the crash site recovering jewelry, clothing, and body parts, writing them back for analysis by forensic experts. we also believe that in the next hour or so the parents of andreas lubitz the 27-year-old copilot, will be questioned again by french police still trying to find any reason why their son would have done something like this. german police have been making some significant developments. they have searched his apartment and taken a number of items from his apartment. for example, a computer. but also they say they have found something that is a significant clue and they are bringing that for testing in a laboratory today. but all the focus really is on

bill neely, nbc news, iraq. >>> days after a powerful cyclone hit the pacific island nation of vanuatu, many victims remain desperate for relief. our drone captured incredible images of the damage. in this devastation, many don't know whether their loved ones are alive or dead including a mother our own miguel almaguer encountered today. >> reporter: a 28-year-old on a desperate journey to find her family. >> i don't know what they are doing. if my home is still there. >> reporter: when the storm hit three days ago, she was with her husband in the capital port vila. her 2-year-old son, her mother and grandmother were here which took a direct hit from the storm. she doesn't know if they're still alive. heading to her remote village, we sent up a drone for a better look. this road was unpassable until now. friends along the way speak of neighbors who didn't survive. but they have no word about her family. after a hard 45-minute ride -- >> there's my house there. >> reporter: she must go the rest of the way on foot. she finds her grandmother in the very spot she saw her last. but where wa

nbc's bill neely has details. >> reporter: in a statement entitled lufthansa helps investigation process, the airline confirmed for the first time that andreas lubitz had a previous episode of devere depression. it says he wrote this in a 2009 e-mail to the flight training pilot school so he could resume his training after dropping out for several months. lufthansa said it has now given this e-mail to prosecutors after further interm investigations. the key question is when did it know about the e-mail. once lubitz revealed his depression as a past issue, he resumed training and qualified as a pilot with lufthansa. the statement doesn't address how the airline followed up his past severe depression. two days ago a lufthansa spokesman told nbc news the airline, quote, had no knowledge of medical problems during lubitz's employment. for days lufthansa and its subsidiary germanwings has tried to leave no room for doubt about its pilots and its procedures saying this two days after the crash. >> we have complete confident in our pilots. we have a flight school which all our pilots have -- go

lester. >> all right, bill neely in france starting us off. bill thanks very much. thankfully the source of things are exceedingly rare. still the shocking turn of events has got people thinking about how pilots in this country are screened and who's looking out for any troubling signs that may arise. nbc's tom costello has our report. >> reporter: if andreas lubitz hid a medical or mental condition from lufthansa, it might have been out of fear that he'd never fly again. [ inaudible ] in 2012 a jetblue pilot suffered a mental breakdown on a flight from las vegas to new york. the pilot lost his license. under faa rules updated five years ago, pilots are encouraged to self-report a mental health issue and seek treatment early. usually spending a year out of the cockpit while on disability. but they can return to the cockpit even while taking antidepressants including zoloft prozac. now working as a counselor. >> the unions and airlines are both telling their pilots it's okay, you know if you have issues with mental health. make sure you seek help and let us know. >>

>> let's go to bill neely. it seems if you have eight minutes to contemplate your death, which these passengers did, it was quite a horrendous ending for these people. >> reporter: an absolutely horrendous ending. a guy who in total silence deliberately programmed not just his own death, but as you said, the death of his colleagues and you have his trusting passengers. and where, really, chris, do you begin to explain all this? maybe we can begin with 9/11, not just because in that case it was guys who deliberately drove their planes in that indicates into buildings, bud also the irony that the very safeguards that were introduced after 9/11 to prevent such mass murder have in fact enabled this guy to commit mass murder. so axes were taken out of the palace, and closed doors and codes. this guy overwrote those codes to prevent his pilot getting into the cockpit to prevent him from committing mass murder. it's absolutely stunning. one of the most stunning developments we've ever seen in aviation history. why he

we still have with us bill neely. o speed. >> just to back up with chris dickey was saying there, reports from the scene are suggesting that the debris being found is at least a two and a half hour hike from the nearest village. at the moment a couple police helicopters have located the debris which appears most of it to be in a crevice. what chris has said is difficult terrain. it is an area where the flight recorders should be recovered from. this is not mh-370 this is not an ocean crash. this is a crash in a mountainside. however, inaccessible, it's likely within the next few days we'll have answers to this extraordinary mystery. we don't know why this plane descended as it did. germanwings, the operator, now says 150 people were on board. 144 passengers the 2 pilots and 4 crew. and from the spanish authorities, 45 of the passengers were spanish. it was flying from barcelona to dusseldorf, so a lot of the passengers are probably german but no word from german authorities. >> we're hearing germans, pass passengers fr

joining me now, nbc news chief global correspondent, bill neely near the crash site in the alps. bill, what do we know at this hour? >> reporter: yes, good evening, chris. this is a crash that frankly has the experts baffled. a plane flying apparently normally, in good weather, that suddenly plummets from 30,000 feet -- from 38,000 feet, but plummets 30,000 feet in less than ten minutes. unimaginable for those on board. i'm at rescue headquarters, where the search has been suspended. we're now in darkness, as you can see. it will be begun again in first light. but today they have been searching the mountainside, a really appalling scene. tiny fragments of that plane. it looks like from what eyewitnesss have said, that the plane was in tact when it hit the mountainside, but the pieces are just tiny fragments. thousands of them, not a single one apparently bigger than a car. and no sign of life on board. as you say, 150 people, 144 passengers, 67, at least, from germany. at least 45 from spain. there were also passengers from turkey, from belgium, and possibly from britain. among th

bill neely is near the crash site. let's go to you first.hat is it about this that causes a mystery? why are they heading into the mountains? et cetera, et cetera. >> reporter: good evening, chris. it's a crash that really does have the experts absolutely baffled. the plane apparently flying normally in perfectly good weather that was seal by another air france pilot. he said the weather perfectly, really, that suddenly plummets more than 30,000 feet in ten minutes, unimaginable for those on board. i'm at rescue headquarters. it's nightfall now, the weather has deteriorated slightly. the search has suspended until first light. what we do know are those terrible statistics, 150 on board, of whom 67 at least were german, 45 spanish. there were also turking, a belgian, we believe some british people on board. 144 passengers in total, as well as though two pilots and four crew. the chief pilot was an experienced man. he had more than ten years' experience. the plane itself, it was aging a little. 24 years old, so certainly the oldest plane in th

that's nbc's bill neely over in erbil, iraq, of course. we heard about disaffected people living in the west joining isis in the middle east, people with middle eastern backgrounds in many cases. now some americans are headed to join the fight against isis. he's documented conflicts in the middle east before, going so far as to fight alongside the rebels that overthrew gadhafi in libya in 2011. during that time he was xwriched for six months by gadhafi's forces. now van dyke has founded sons of -- he employs veterans to train local christian groups on the ground. very few people impress me, but you do, sir. what got you into the mood of joining the fight apparently ahead of our own ground troops, because we don't have ground troops fighting isis. >> what got me focused, i was friends with journalists. after they were killed by isis, i thought what can i do to have an impact on this conflict? i knew there were forces on the ground that needed advising and training, so i connected them with veterans on the it done. >> how many people have yo

nbc's bill neely breaks down what we know right now. >> reporter: on a rugged french mountain side in thousands of scattered pieces the remains of a crashed plane. here and there, rescuers. but there was no one left alive to rescue. the airbus with 150 on board had simply disintegrated on impact. flight 9525 took off from barcelona at 10 climbing normally to a cruising altitude of 38,000 feet at 10:27. for eight minutes the pilots sent no distress signal. flight radar 24 says it lost contact with the plane which had dropped more than 30,000 feet at 10:40. on board were 144 passengers two pilots and four flight crew. among them at least 67 passengers from germany and 45 from spain. >> crews renewed their search just a short time ago. nbc's keir simmons is at the command center near the crash site this morning. keir, what is the latest? >> reporter: dara good morning. you can see behind me helicopters ferrying air accident investigators up to the crash site which is so difficult to reach. it takes hours to get there by foot a treacherous trek. the only way to get there other than that i

back to you. >> bill neely, such a spectacular backdrop hosting such an awful story. thank you. >>> iran talks enter the final hours. now the state department says the negotiations could in fact extend into tomorrow. we will check back in with andrea mitchell just after this break. you're watching msnbc live. know your financial plan won't keep you up at night. know you have insights from professional investment strategists to help set your mind at ease. know that planning for retirement can be the least of your worries. with the guidance of a pnc investments financial advisor, know you can get help staying on track for the future you've always wanted. (vo) maggie wasn't thrilled when ben and i got married. i knew it'd take some time. and her sensitive stomach didn't make things easier. it was hard to know why... the move...her food...? so we tried purina cat chow gentle... ...because it's specially formulated for easy digestion. she's loved it ever since. and as for her and ben... ...she's coming around. purina cat chow gentle. one hundred percent complete and balanc

bill neely joined them on the front lines. >> reporter: war with isis. cur dish troops in a front-line battle with an enemy that took their land. they're taking it back. it began with coalition air strikes, hitting isis in three villages. more than 100 kurdish troops move with them a half dozen americans, veterans of the war in iraq back as volunteers some didn't want to be identified. >> the next village. >> reporter: they target the black isis flag in a fourth village as they move in a humvee spots three suspected isis fighters running and give chase. later they reported three dead. the curds suffer casualties too. isis bobby traps roads. the village appears secured, then isis hits back. the curds have taken that village. the kurds have decided to make a retreat. there's a frantic pullback. isis may have lost ground but they're not beaten. >> they're everywhere. >> it's going to take time. >> yes. >> they're just pure evil. pure evil. >> reporter: the kurds find dozens of i.e.d.s and isis tunnels. an enemy on the run. >> the white house is working over

bill neely has the latest from southern france. bill. >> reporter: good morning. this was another bomb shell in a story of extraordinary rev lags. last week we learned that andreas lubitz had torn up sick notes to hide his medical condition from his employer. then we heard maybe he was suffering from depression. yesterday the prosecutor in germany trumped that. an dry andreas lubitz had had suicidal tendency tendency. he'd always dreamed of flying but it's clear he also considered killing 234i78s. he'd been receiving therapy on his mind suicide. >> treatment of a psychotherapist because of what is documented as being suicidal. >> reporter: he'd seen doctors just before the past and in recent years but there was no record of any suicidal tendencies or aggression. evidence from his apartment shows he tried to hide his medical condition from the airline. investigators are examining reports that that condition was manic depression or bipolar disorder. his employers now face more questions. did they know about his decide dal thoughts and if they did, why did they belie

nbc's chief global correspondent bill neely joins me from northern iraq where iranian militias have joined the fight against isis and, bill that very point, iraq is making some real progress against isis over the last couple of weeks. but could they have been doing it without the help of these iranian militias? >> reporter: i think the answer is no, chuck. iran's role in iraq has never been so visible, though. iranian backed militias are everywhere. their colors are everywhere. 20,000 men and suleman, who is head of iran's most elite forces in tikrit he's directing dozens of iranian officers operating drones artillery and rocket systems. now saudi arabia's foreign minister says all of that shows iran is taking over iraq and it is true that iran's militias are answerable not to baghdad, but to tehran. it is ironic in the 1980s, iran and iraq saw a terrible war with a stalemate with a million dead. you could argue iran is now winning the fight if you like, winning the war for a broken iraq. >> the old war 30 years ago. you brought up saudi arabia and their concerns about iran. i think the re