chairman debbie hersman headed to san francisco with a team of investigators. captain bun, you alluded to something earlier and i want you to expound on that if you could. when a pilot is approaching a runway, when a pilot is landing and there's a co-pilot sitting next to him, what is the division of labor? >> well, one person flies the plane. the other person does the radio work. but constantly crosscheck. anytime you touch a switch, the other person is supposed to watch it or actually operate the switch for them. and so that both people are involved in everything that happens on the plane constantly, checking and crosschecking. >> all right. it looks like this news conference that we have been waiting for in san francisco at the airport there, it looks like this news conference is set to begin here. we see some officials there lining up behind the microphone. again, we heard from san francisco -- we heard from officials there about two hours ago. at that point, they did not have a lot of hard information. they couldn't tell us precisely how many people were a

it's just too early. >> bob, before we heard from debbie hersman there, i was struck by something i heard from one of the local fire officials there in the bay area. we were listening and watching some of the local coverage there. and he indicated that it appears as if this plane was evacuated in anywhere between two and three minutes. that seems staggering, that it only takes two or three minutes to evacuate a plane. >> especially when you think of when you land normally and how long you're sitting in your seat waiting to get out of the aircraft. but it's a whole different ballgame when it's an emergency like this. so back when the aircraft is originally certified, so this is long ago in the case of the 777, you but they put it through an extensive series of tests where they actually have live bodies on the plane, and they sound a go signal, and everybody rushes for the exits. and the crews practice managing people getting to the exits and so forth. all that is -- you have to show that you can evacuate the plane actually in a minute and a half, 90 seconds. so that's nearly impossible tas

entrevista debbie hersman que los medicos forenses no han determinado aun la causa de la muerte de laeguraran primero mediante una autopsia de lo ocurrido antes de sacar cualquier conclusion... cesar ---precisamente sobre las dos victimas fatales se supo que son de origen chino y que venian a california a participar en un campamento de verano... ---ellas asistirian al campamento de la "west valley christian school"... en los angeles... ---sus padres llegan esta noche al area de la bahia procedentes de los angeles en un vuelo de southwest... take pkg 0:01 0:25 1:20 pkg ---los padres de las victimas fatales... ye meng-yuan y wang lin-ya ambas adolescentes y amigas cercanas abordaron un avion de "asiana airlines" en "shanghai , china... que los llevo primero a seul en corea del sur para luego hacer una conexion con destino a san francisco... ---varios familiares de las victimas mostraron su indignacion contra la aerolinea que no pudo hacer los arreglos para proveer un vuelo especial directo a san francisco... take sot ---el padre de "wang lin-ya" dijo antes de abordar el avion que se sen

and we heard from debbie hersman earlier, chairman of the ntsb. she mentioned the same thing, these subject matter experts, who would be deployed to the scene. who are they and what are the subject matters? >> well, the subject matter experts consist of, of course, the national transportation safety board subject matter experts. so you'll have a power plants expert, you'll have an operations expert, in this case, an airports expert, a survivability factors expert, and various other, post-accident fire expert. each of those groups is headed by a national transportation safety board person. under those groups, though, you'll have representatives from the faa and then parties to the investigation that consist of industry and other folks that can provide a level of assistance to the board, and a particular level of expertise, that the board doesn't necessarily have in-house. so we'll have representatives from the airline, you'll have it from the manufacturer, like boeing, pratt and whitney are the engines. so you'll have those folks as well helping th

the chairman of the ntsb, who is on the ground in san francisco, debby hersman joins me now. chairman, you've said this morning off lot of good information to start going through. describe what that is. >> well, we have a good number of survivors, and i think we're very thankful that the numbers were not worse when it came to fatalities and injuries. it could have been much worse. we have crew that survived that we can interview. and significantly, we have cockpit voice recorders and flight data recorders that have been recovered, went back on a red eye last night under federal escort to d.c. we hope to audition those in our headquarters in the next 24 hours. >> i know you have an opportunity with investigators to actually go through that burned-out fuselage. those pictures are dramatic of you, also the aftermath of this flight. the bit of information that you do have, no distress calls reportedly from the flight crew, and as tom costello mentioned reports from the airline that there was no engine trouble. i realize you can't make conclusions. what does that lead you to belie

this is debbie hersman, of course the well-known spokesman, if you will, for the -- chairman rather of the national transportation safety board. let's listen in. >> asiana flight 214 that was originating in seoul, south korea, destined for san francisco. they were coming in on runway 28 left at san francisco international airport, and they crashed on landing. we have a number of investigators who are launching with us here from headquarters. they are being led by investigator in charge bill english. we have a number of subject matter experts who will be leading specific teams. those teams are going to be focused on operations, human performance, survival factors, the airport, airport operations, and they're going to be focusing on the aircraft, the systems, the structures, and the power plants. we're going to be supported by a number of team members here in washington, d.c. they are in the process of collecting information on air traffic control operations, on weather, and on maintenance issues. they will be able to gather information while the rest of our team is en route to provide u

. >> reporter: but at home in suburban washington, chairman hersman becomes debby to husband neal and mom to three boys who say the nation's chief safety officer makes them live what she preaches. >> like all my friends were like out of booster seats and stuff. and i was still 12, and i was in a booster seat. >> i know she's doing it for me because she loves me. she's my mom. >> reporter: being a mom was never far from her mind as she met with the parents of the chinese teenagers who died at asiana flight 214. >> i can hear the word "mama." and as i reach out to shake their hand and tell them that i'm sorry, i say to them, i'm mama, too. >> reporter: a dedication to both families and safety. tom costello, nbc news, washington. >>> back in a moment with a genuine piece of world history up for auction now on ebay. >>> our chief foreign correspondent richard engel was one of four journalists invited to address the u.n. security council this week. 600 journalists have been killed in the last decade covering conflicts. 41 in syria alone just last year. and while richard was there to press

hersman. for starters, people who know her call her debbie, but formally, she goes by deborah. ut the title, well, she uses chairman, not chairwoman. deborah hersman is the face of the investigation into the crash of asiana flight 214. >> we're not reaching any conclusions. we're gathering factual information. >> reporter: she is a triathlete, a wife and mother of three. hersman has also competed in races like the warrior dash. its website bills it as a 5k mud run complete with obstacle course designed to test your strength and stamina. and friends who watch her criss-cross the country leading ntsb crash team investigators say she's an expert multitasker. >> my guess is that when she gets that call, she's already prepared two or three days of meals, plus she has a very supportive husband. >> reporter: she doesn't have a pilot's license, yet she leads the independent federal agency responsible for complex investigations to determine probable cause in aviation and other transportation accidents. the daughter of a former air force pilot, she does have prior experience with transpor