let's bring in robyn kriel with the latest. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, dave. as you said, this preliminary report coming out of from what we understand a high level faa briefing. double edged sword really for boeing. at least it is the same system that failed in both cases so it is the mcas system failing. but they will have to answer many questions about why they didn't take care of this after the first lion air crash that killed hundreds of people. but at the same time at least it is not another problem with the plane. so a double-edged sword there for boeing. eight americans were killed on this flight, 157 people killed in total from 35 different countries. good news though for ethiopia airlines if this does intends turn out to be true because it will vindicate the pilots if it does turn out to be the mcas system failure because it will likely not be blamed then on pilot error. but as you say, the preliminary report. it could take up to a year we understand for the final report to be released. >> robyn kriel live for us in ethiopia. thank you. >>> some demo

robyn kriel live for us this morning. thank you. >>> back here, the president will deliver a budget proposal this morning, his first under a divided government. he is promising to balance the federal budget in 15 years by slashing spending for education, health, environment, foreign aid and other nondefense items a plan the lawmakers will likely ignore. high on the president's agenda, a white house official as confirmed that he will seek $8.6 billion for his border wall. >> the budget proposal has an additional $3.6 billion in military construction funds to pay back the money trump redirected using his executive authority. boris sanchez is traveling with the president and has more from west palm beach. >> reporter: in the proposed budget, president trump is asking all federal agencies to cut 5% of their spending except those agencies related to defense. the president asking for a $35 billion increase in defense spending over last year, including $8.6 billion for his long promised border wall. this is actually the first ti

let's bring in robyn kriel with the latest. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, dave. very technical aspects obviously coming out about this mcas system. here on the ground in ethiopia, still a very human element existing, speaking regularly to some of the families who have been -- who lost their loved ones, 157 people in total killed in that flight on the 10th of march. and they still have no remains, they have nothing to take back with them. some of them are still on the ground here in ethiopia. but as you say, boeing now according to this preliminary report noticing that there are these similarities, also the minister of transport here in charge of the investigation has said that there were similarities in both the lion air crash and the ethiopian air crash. but two days ago on wednesday we were invited by the ethiopian airlines to see inside the simulator of the 737 max 8. and we were told as we were in there that this quick reference handbook has no mention of the mcas system which means if something were to happen, if a failure like this were to happen, and pilot

robyn kriel, we appreciate it. we know a rescue is under way. there are reports there might be survivors. breaking news story. flight 302 from ethiopia to nairobi has crashed. >> and they're going to put a phone number out for loved ones. shortly. but that number has not come out yet. >>> and venezuela, most of that country struggling with widespread blackouts. >> people there are still in the dark, and growing more and more desperate. not that the situation in that country was already so desperate. now, this, look, this is what it looks like. most of the capital has no electricity, except for a fuse box lucky enough to have generators. >> protesters took to the streets marching in rallies, and sent warnings to opponents. >> reporter: we've said it before, the regime wants to wear us out, brothers and sisters, and yes, the road has been very long. the road has worn us outside. but we will never tire in the search for freedom, and we will stay in the streets. >> translator: if the gringos dare to launch a military action around the country as req

robyn kriel is on the phone. the details we have are limited.more are you learning at this point? >> george and natalie, thank you. the details also limited on this side. ethiopia for a long time has had almost a vacuum of information with very restricted press access. what i can tell you from my vantage point right next to the international airport, there are flights taking off and landing. i can hear them. the prime minister tweeting earlier, and that was the first indication we had on the ground there that there was a plane crash. there was very little news on it. it's just trickling in. we do understand there are casualties. and what my sources are telling me here is this plane did attempt to make some kind of emergency landing in the area of adama about an hour, 20 minutes drive from the airport. i'm not sure how long -- or what altitude the plane had reached when it attempted to make this, whatever kind of emergency landing. as you said, the prime minister indicating there are deaths, but we are hearing there could also be survivor. that,

. >> robyn kriel joining us live from the crash site with the latest. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. and just to shed a little bit more light on perhaps what the final moments, what those passengers and those pilots and crew members went through in their final moments, it was just six minutes after taking off from bole international airport that ethiopian airlines flight 302 crashed in this field behind me. we spoke to an eyewitness earlier today, he was collecting wood in the hills near by, he said he saw the plane flying erratically like the pilot was trying to do something. he also said that he believes that the plane was smoking in some fashion before it went down. so all of these sort of eyewitness accounts obviously you can't judge the entire incident just from one person's account, but investigators, police, information ren tick peop forensic people coming here and they have a disaster response unit here, they will all be collecting this are informatiin figure out what brought down the flight. to give you an idea of the scene behind me,

robyn kriel, cnn, near addis ababa, ethiopia. >> mary skiochiavo is with us n.ur aviation analyst. we know an ntsb team is on the way to ethiopia, that crash site right now. what happens when they get there, what's priority one? >> priority one, obviously, secure the site. there seems to be a lot of people milling about. they have to secure it. the ntsb is there because they are among a few other countries really the world experts on black box data downloads, reading, figuring out what's on there. and that, and i believe in this crash, b is going to have the answers. 737 max. it has the newest models of black boxes. records approximately 1,000 lines of data from different parts of the aircraft, instruments, the speed, everything about the aircraft and the cockpit voice recording is 25 hours long so they would have prior flights on it as well. so that will be the ntsb's primary interest and obviously boeing's on its way, too, and it's a big issue for boeing. this is the second one related to this controller system, it's trouble. >> and so on that note, mary, beca