nbc's tom costello takes us inside the storm. >> 74 mile-per-hour winds now. this would be a category 1 storm. >> plus a winter blast for the central and eastern u.s. dash cam video captures a horrific fall. and why these photos of kate middleton are causing a stir. good morning, i'm mara schiavocampo. we beginning in the philippines where it's going from bad to worse days after that devastating typhoon. this morning nearly 1,200 people are confirmed dead. officials warn that number could climb to more than 10,000. it's now a race against time to help survivors. the "uss george washington" is on its way on board dozens of sailors and 80 aircraft. we have the latest from manila. >> reporter: good morning, mara. this morning the presidential palace here says they are doing everything they can to get aid to the affected areas. a spokesman said no filipino will be forgotten and he said communications are being restored. he said 30% of communications has been restored to tacloban city. this comes in the face of growing criticism from those areas that they simply ar

tom costello is from dunkin' brands and joins us from san diego. john, good morning to you. >> good morning. >> you guys have been aggressive. people talk about the #mydunkin, and how long has that been in

nbc's tom costello was right there next to them. >> reporter: at the world's busiest airport in atlanta a cold driving rain made for a miserable day on the ramp. inside, a rush of activity and just a handful of delays and cancellations. going to fly today atlanta to pittsburgh through the weather and we'll see how it goes. as the rain picked up, my flight was among those delayed. >> i do apologize for this delay. and i hope to get you out of here, get you to your holidays as quickly as possible. >> reporter: total delay in atlanta about 90 minutes, now head for the record pittsburgh. the rain in atlanta for a winter landscape on approach in pittsburgh. further north in michigan, a sheet of ice led to a multi-vehicle accident near flint. near whitehall, a dashboard cam caught this truck jack knifing and barely missing an already stopped car. near roanoke, virginia, drivers were met with ice a quarter inch thick. while ong long island in new york, trooper frank bendario has seen this before. a holiday rush and treacherous roads. >> it's just going to be twice as congested i would assume.

the story where we begin tonight is with nbc's tom costello. he's at national airport in washington. tom, good evening. >> reporter: good evening. this is still far from reality, but it could be soon you'll be able to hear everything your seatmate says, in fact, everybody on the plane says the length of your entire trip. for many it's that last refuge from ringing cell phones and text messages. but now what may be the first sign that could change. the fcc says it will soon propose allowing passengers to talk on their phones in their seats above 10,000 feet. something already aloud in europe and asia but not in the u.s. in a statement the fcc commissioner said today the time is right to review our outdated and restricted rules. a public comment period would come first. >> this idea is every frequent flyer's worst nightmare, to be stuck in a tube flying 30,000 feet with people making unnecessary calls for six hours or more. >> reporter: we asked travelers for their reactions today at reagan national airport. >> way too disruptive. i like my peace.

>> tom costello setting stage at washington national tonight. tom, thanks. >>> meteorologist chris warren is watching it all at weather channel headquarters for us tonight. chris, show us what this is going to do over the next few days. >> reporter: this is going to be a very messy and potentially nasty and dangerous situation over the next couple of days. throughout the afternoon and evening, the heaviest rain we have been seeing has been in the south. that's one major component that will work into the northeast. we are already seeing a bit of a wintry component with this as well. this little bit earlier this evening now looking at the forecast for tomorrow, this mess does move up into the northeast. much of the extreme northeast will be okay for the first part of the day, but you're talking some very heavy rain making it throughout the i-95 corridor again on wednesday. right through there. heavy rain will be a serious problem. possibly ponding on the roadways. with so many people out there you have to be very careful. interior locations expecti

tom costello takes us inside the storm. >>> plus winteblast. for the central and eastern u.s. >>also, dashcam video captures a hoific fall. >>> and why these photos of kate middleton are causing a stir. "early today" star right now. >>> this is "early today" for tuesday, nember 12th. >>> go morning. i'm betty nguyen. we begin in the phippines where it is going fromad to woe. this morning nearly 2,000 people just days aft that devastating typhoon, ts morni neay 1,200 people are confirmed dead. officials warn tt number could climb to more than 10,000. and it's now a race against time to help survivors. the "uss george washington" is on its way. on board, dozens of american ilors and more than 80 aircraft. nbc's ian william joins us from mala. goodorning, ian. >> reporter: good morning. the presidential pale this rning have been at pains to emphasize they a doing all they can to sedily get help to those affected areas. a presidentialpokesperson sang that aid waseing spatched and that communations are being restored. he said that noby would be forgotten, that aid would reach even

>> tom costello out of miami tom,hanks. >>> now our update on the continui and desperate situation in t philippines. tonight e u.n. is out with their new estimate othe death toll nearly 4500o far. also tonight some food, water and medical he is finally getting , but it's not clear,50. also tonight some food, water d medical help is filly getting in, but it's not clear if it is reaching the hundreds of thousands who desperaly need it. tonight,bc's harry smith has ventured bk into the hard hit city otacloban. harry, good evening. >> reporter: brian, ank you very much. once again in cloban. yesterday we criss-crossed the country with the united states marine corps and if possible gained an even greater undersnding of the depth a scope of the problems and also the urgency for need of response. we have been looking ascenes misery all week. an incomprehensible visual onslaught. as we e almost seven full ys now since the storm hit,his is what you should know. aid is starting to pour in fro all over the world. with a sble airport, back there there is a plane from the united araemirates. behi

tom costello, college park, maryla. >>> the u.s government is contributi an initial $20 miion to the wldwide relief effort. thatumber will grow. this initial money wl provide emergency shelter, food, water and sanitation. tonight prerations are underw for starters to send the u.s.s. george washingto aircraft carrier battle group from hong kong to the philippines to help with relief efrts as well. meanwhe a lot of americans are waitinto hear about loved es and th are stepping up to help. we get more on that frombc's mi taibbi in southern california. reporter: laura henderson of pasadena has been glued to the tv and internet since last thursday >> saying all their families are gone. >> reporte she finally heard from her own fatr that he and her brother and momad made it, but hasn't heard from anunt who suffers from diates. you don't know if she can survive with a medic conditn. >> n we don't. >> repter: medications and food and wer and more are on the way. big nonprofits like direct relief in santa barbara with warehouses filled with donations will be shipped out asap. >> iwon't do any

nbc's tom costello has our report. >> reporter: it's the end of a long cross-country or international flight. but in today's highly automated cockpits, how much flying do the crews actually do? captain karen kahn has spent 36 years as a pilot for a major airline. she worries about younger pilots relying too heavily on autopilot. >> it's there to help you. it is not the actual commander of the airplane, you are. so you need to use it like an adjunct. it's like another crew member helping you. >> reporter: now a new faa report raises the red flag that pilots sometimes rely too much on automated systems, and some pilots lack sufficient or in-depth knowledge and skills to properly control their plane's trajectory. the basic pilot errors were thought to have contributed to the crash of an air flans plane in 2009. a commuter flight in buffalo later that year, and perhaps the asiana flight this summer. >> you must maintain your basic airmanship. >> reporter: as a test, the captain who flew the boeing triple seven once kept track of how often he had to use the controls, on an auto pilot to lo

nbc's tom costello is out in it in pittsburgh tonight. good evening. >> reporter: hi, brian. in fact, in this area we used to have -- or did have snow earlier today. now we've got just the bone-chilling extreme rain and cold out here. you mentioned the delays. a hundred flight cancellations nationwide. we flew in today from atlanta, and we can tell you that it was a little bit of a rough go, and across the country everybody is struggling today. at the world's busiest airport in atlanta, a cold driving rain made for a miserable day on the ramp for robert cotton. >> you have to dress in layers. you never know how long you're going to be outside. >> reporter: inside, a rush of activity and just a handful of delays and cancellations. we're going to fly today atlanta to pittsburgh through the weather. we'll see how it goes. as the rain picked up, my flight was among those delayed. >> i do apologize for this delay, and i hope to get you out of here and get you on to your holiday as quickly as possible. >> reporter: waiting at the gate with me, stacy danko, trying to get home to you

nice time of year for that to happen. >> tom costello starting us off. thanks. and to the weather center we go. janis, everybody wants to know when we can say good bye to this. >> new england is seeing the heaviest rain right now. back through upstate new york we're even seeing a little bit of light it snow. but otherwise we're on the southern end of the storm. it will continue to exit the area as we go through the rest of this evening. but then we have to deal with the winds. and we're expecting gusts around 34 miles per hour here in new york city in the morning. that as a big concern for the macy's thanksgiving day parade large balloon. they won't be able to go up if the wind's in excess of 20 miles per hour. 15 in new york city. you've got to layer up. as we track the storm system, there's still going to be lake-effect snows across the great lakes, back into michigan, parts of upstate new york. otherwise the weather's pretty quiet across the country as we go through thursday. it should be nice and sun ony i most spots. on sunday, you'll find t temperatures in

nbc's tom costello is live at jetblue's training facility. >> reporter: hi, brian. this is all about requiring more time in these sophisticated training equipment. they operate them not just for jetblue pilots but others as well. it's about giving pilots time in these simulators, time the faa says is invaluable. it was nearly five years ago that 50 people died when an airlines crew stalled and then crashed a plane outside of buffalo. today the faa applauded the families of flight 3407 for demanding change in a cockpit and at the airlines. >> they have channelled their grief into advocating for safety improvements that will benefit millions of families. >> reporter: today the faa insisted that all airlines ramp up their use of high fidelity simulators in their building. the kind of simulators jetblue uses to train 4,000 pilots a year. among the priorities, ensuring pilots know how to respond to a stall warning. this stall warning, you want them to experience in the simulator. >> absolutely. they need to know what to expect if it ever happens in the aircraft. we want

they havetudied t data a conclude there is no evidence it does any good our port from tom costello. >> reporte it's a ttic borrowed from the israelis. tsa offers scanning the crowd fornyone who doesn seem to fit in, nervous, jumpy, hostile, talking tohem to learn their motives. but a new reportalls for cutting funding t the program because there's no evidence behavior detection works. and the ability to accurately identify deceptive behavior based on behavioral indicators is the same as or slightly better than chance. tomorrow the tsa chief will face quesoning on capitol hill. >> how ithis a value to the erage american traveling through our airports? hos it going to make them safer, and therefore,s it worth the money we're investing in it. >> reporter: they have 3,000 agents dedicat to screening people and alrea kred rted wi stopping armed suspects drug couriers a potential terrorists a behavior specialist was amo those wounded in the l.a.x. shooting ram page at left an officer kid two weeks ago. havior detection is vital to thetsa's layered approach to deter, detect a dispt individua

we start with tom costello from pittsburgh international airport. tom, what's the mood of the passengers you have spoken to? >> i think people are cold and determined to get home for thanksgiving. we have about an inch or two of snow on the ground. a lot of icing over the last 24 hours or so. the story at the moment in terms of airport delays is not so much pittsburgh as a northeast corridor. the faa's website significant delays building for philadelphia and boston and new york city. those four cities in particular are choke points. what happens in and out of those cities can affect those where we are seeing delays in atlanta and chicago. we will watch closely these key hubs and key cities. i counted at last check roughly 300 or so cancellations as of this moment nationwide and system-wide. we had about 100 cancellations and 700 or 800 delays. the good news is that we have for the most part turned this into a rain event throughout much of the northeast. you never want to deal with rain because that will create delays. at the moment it's rain and not

our report from nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: while they may not be a fountain of youth, the research suggests just a handful of nuts every day could be a life saver. >> the evidence suggests that if one chooses nuts over other alternative foods there is a 20% improvement in mortality which is quite striking. >> reporter: researchers looked into more than 100,000 men and women over 30 years. they found that the more often people regularly ate nut, the lower their death rate. people who ate one ounce of nuts seven times a week were 20% less likely to die from a variety of causes, heart disease, stroke, and infection. and it doesn't matter what kind of nuts. peanuts, mipistachios, all of tm have an impact on health. they've been saying for years it's the best you can eat. >> all of these nutrients rolled up into this product. we reap the benefit. >> reporter: the research was paid for by the national institutes of health and a small grant from the nut council. the study found that people who eat nutteds tend to be thin and healthy. >> you're going to risk adding extra pounds. >> reporte

now let's head to tom costello who's in pittsburgh. tom? >> reporter: katy, thank you. here in pittsburgh we've got somewhere in the neighborhood of an inch or 2 on the ground here in terms of snow. we had some freezing rain and also some sleet over the course of the past 24 hours, but at the moment most of that has subsided now. it is, however, very cold. pittsburgh airport not dramatically affected at the moment in terms of delays or cancellations, but we're watching the entire system. expected to see several hundred cancellations today. we've already got somewhere in the neighborhood of 300. and the delays are also expected to build. and of course those crunch airports are the ones we're watching. you talked about new york, we're also watching boston, philadelphia, the washington area, probably also buffalo because they're looking at snow there and then as you stepped further east, chicago and also atlanta. major hub cities. so when you start to see delays out of one airport, ripple effect to the other airports and that could spread. you could see delays in denver, i

. >> tom costello apparently just off th runwaythere. thank you. >>> up next for us tonight, why campers inside t grand canyon had better move their stf if th haven't already. >>> if you know the name trevor bayne, either you're a nasr fan o you heard his ne after he became the youngestver winner of the daytona 500 back in 2011 at the age of 20. was back in the news today because he's been diagnosed with ms. he went for a battery of tests at the mayo clinic after some unexplaid numbness in his arm. bayne, who h a sister with ms says he will continue to race and his racing team will fully support him, they say. >>> visitors to the grand canyon get to s something very special but just for the next few days. the folks at the u.s. bureau of reclamation ar flooding the terway that runs through the caon in order to move the sedime around. tons of it has stled at various spots at the bottom. and they decided to mixt . itill create neweaches on the banks of the canyon and sand ba in the middle. >>>olice officers in weste sweden were called to a

tom costello covers aviation for us. he's live at miami international tonight. tom, good evening. >> reporter: hi, brian. good evening to you. in fact, this rule goes back to the 1950s. it was all about protecting the cockpit. but the new rule is these simple electronic devices pose no risk to modern aviation. it is welcome news to anyone who flies. on this halloween travel day with costumes on full display at the airport there was also a treat awaiting travellers. >> at this time please turn off all cellular telephones and all other electronic devices. >> reporter: that preflight announcement will soon be a thing of the past. no need to power down your cell phones, e-readers, or music. though your cell connection needs to remain off. >> the policy i think strikes the appropriate balance between responding to what customers want but first and foremost insuring we have a safe environment. >> reporter: an faa investigative committee found the vast majority of planes can tolerate radio interference from electronic devices. it's now up to each and individual airline

tom costello has more on what's being called automation addiction. >> reporter: a new faa report written by apoutside panel of experts raises the red flag that pilots sometimes rely too much on automated systems. and some pilots lack sufficient or indepth knowledge and skills to properly control their plane's trajectory. basic piloting errors are thought to have contributed to the crash of an air france plane in 2009, a commuter plane crash in buffalo the same year, and perhaps the crash in san francisco this summer. as a test, captain tom casey who flu the boeing 777 once kept track of how rarely he had to touch the controls. on an autopilot flight new york to london, from takeoff to touchdown, just seven times. >> that is being in command of a system of wonderful computers that do a great job, but it isn't flying. >> casey says captain sullenberger showed what real flying is all about during the miracle on the hudson in 2009. >>> now to business. today we get a look at october's retail sales figures as well as an update on the housing market. later we get the fefr federal reserve's min

we begin tonight with tom costello at the airport in washington. tom, good evening. >> reporter: hi, brian. cold here. we have had thousands of delays, hundreds of cancellations. the numbers expected to build through the night. but on this day with heavy rain, high winds, some snow. it's been a treacherous day of travel for many people. tens of millions of people on the road and, for many, it's been bumper to bumper. in charlotte, traffic was so bad, some folks got out, making a mad dash for the airport. >> are you trying to make your flight? >> reporter: up and down the east coast, weather has dominated the local newscasts. >> take a look. >> with roads, traffic tracker. >> reporter: on the i-95 traffic map, a lot of green but also red delays around washington and philly, including a deadly crash this morning on a flooded section of i-76. >> what i'm going to do is start you a tow. he should be here within a half hour. >> that's good. >> reporter: in new york, highway help trucks have been out all day while amtrak trains and stations are packed. wi

. >> we want to thank our tom costello for that report. >>> when you finally get to your destination after you have had all that turkey, then comes, of course, the shopping. some stores taking the unprecedented step to open thanksgiving night, but many americans aren't taking the bait. tracie potts aren't taking that for us. she's live in washington. just how are businesses trying to get people into their stores thanksgiving evening? >> well, betty, they're opening, and they're opening earlier than they even did last year. even though just over half of americans say in this latest survey that, yes, they'll get out at some point this weekend and shop, more people than last year plan to stay home. >> reporter: despite the campers and they started last week, fewer americans plan to shop this weekend compared to last year. >> i don't shop on thanksgiving. i dedicate that to family. >> reporter: many large retailers plan to open on thanksgiving day. macy's, target, and sears, along with wal-mart, as early as 8:00 p.m. trying to get a jump on this yoer's shopping season. it's one week shor

nbc's tom costello takes us inside the storm. >> 74 mile-per-hour winds now.ld be a category 1 storm. >> plus a winter blast for the central and eastern u.s. dash cam video captures a horrific fall. and why these photos of kate middleton are causing a stir. good morning, i'm mara schiavocampo. we beginning in the philippines where it's going from bad to worse days

tom costello made his way to pittsburgh this morning. od morning. we have about two inches of snow on the ground here and freezing rain and ice. so system wide, nationwide, i just checked and we have several hundred flight cancellations and that number expected to grow in the coming hours and throughout the day. the biggest points are the new york city area, philadelphia, boston as well. washington d.c. and then beyond that, we got chicago getting hit hard in atlanta because they're filling the effects from all the delays system wide and they're also seeing delays and cancellations. on this very busy travel day it's going to be a very difficult day in some of the nation's biggest airports especially east of the mississippi. >> tom costello, thank you. nbc news learned new details about a secret cia program after 9/11 that tried to turn prisoners at guantanamo bay into double agents. the idea was to send them back home to al qaeda or even here in the u.s. they were held at penny lane and were rewarded with real beds, showers and pornograph

. >> reporter: i'm tom costello at atlanta's hartsfield jackson international airport where it is coldwn even more in the coming hours. we have some delays and cancellations. those could build. this is the busiest airport in the world. 63 million people coming through here last year. we could see significant delays rippling across the country because what happens here affects thousands of flights directly and even more indirectly. >> here in chicago the skies are clear and lines are moving smoothly, but with so many passengers connecting through this hub, any delay

. >> reporter: i'm tom costello at atlanta's hartsfield jackson international airport where it is cold and wet today and expected to come down even more in the coming hours. we have some delays and cancellations. those could build. this is the busiest airport in the world. 63 million people coming through here last year. we could see significant delays rippling across the country because what happens here affects thousands of flights directly and even more indirectly. >> here in chicago the skies are clear and lines are moving smoothly, but with so many passengers connecting through this hub, any delays on the east coast are sure to ripple throughout the country and passengers here could start seeing delays and possibly cancellations. >> reporter: here in virginia about an hour west of roanoke, virginia, we woke up to freezing rain. it sounded like rain and looks like rain until it freezes on contact with everything is touches. this is just a simple blade of grass here, but the cars were coated as well as the bridges and the overpasses. >> we'll have more on the weather coming up. >>>

tom costello is standing by and he's here with me now. are you there? >> i am, tamron. this is a real embarrassment for this crew. they thought that they were landing at mcconnell air force base which as you mentioned is eight to ten miles away. what's interesting here is that the mcconnell had cleared them to land and the crew didn't realize they were at the wrong airport until they got on the ground and then they still didn't know where they were. in fact, they thought they were at yet another airport, a third airport. the controller at mcconnell had to say, we think you're at jabara airport. the crew was so disoriented, they didn't know where they were. this is a very small airport outside of wichita. this plane normally fields about 9,000 feet to take off safely. they have about 6,100 feet here. so they have taken some fuel off of this plane. they have brought in a new crew. they have done everything they can to essentially maximize the performance of this aircraft on a takeoff and they're going to put the pedal to the metal in a few minutes and go as fast and as st

tom costello is one of the nation's busiest in atlanta. what's the situation there. >> reporter: hey, savannah, good morning. in fact, cold and wet describes it here but it's 34 degrees. it is not sleet. it is not ice. it's just rain right now. this is the busiest airport in the world. 63 million people coming through atlanta airport. it's going to be critical to see how this airport handles all of this through the next days. take a look at this camera. we'll be looking at the depart stats here in atlanta. so far we're off to a good start. no cancellations or delays. we're going to be watching that closely throughout the day. we also want to check flight aware.com's misery map. this is a very useful interactive tool on airport delays and cancellations. so in addition to atlanta this morning we're also watching the washington airports and their main routes and new york city and their main routes and boston logan and it's main routes. already showing creeping red today. in memphis they're showing significant delays already this morning. all

let's get to tom costello. tom, you know how we feel. tell us what might happen here. >> reporter: that's pretty much the resounding sentiment at the airport. we have all sat next to somebody who wouldn't stop talking. up until now we choose not to talk to them, maybe they quiet down, but now under this proposed rule, they can text and talk all the way across country. for some frequent flyers, that's a nightmare. >> new heights in entertainment are promising airline passengers. >> reporter: it's been many years since the golden days of flying meant fine china and caviar. but do we want this? a plane full of phone conversations at 30,000 feet. >> i would rather sit next to a crying baby for 8 hours than next to a yakkety larry that won't shut up! >> reporter: while the proposed fcc rule change would allow just that, texting and phone conversations from your seat as you cruise across america. it's already allowed in some countries and the fcc chairman says the time is right to review our outdated and restrictive rules. >> i think that if p

we have full coverage including dylan dreyer and tom costello on the roads and the airports. but al, we will begin with you. >> before this thing is over it will effect 25 states, 40 million people and of course it will culminate with thanksgiving day or wednesday travel right before thanksgiving. we have winter weather advisories, winter storm warnings, that area of pink is the icy conditions we're going to see. this storm will transfer its energy to the gulf. tons of moisture available to it. so by early tuesday morning we're looking at heavy thunderstorms, wind and rain, snow developing to the north. during the day it lifts up inland so that the heavy rain will stay along the coast as you get to the north and west. by early wednesday morning it's mostly snow and then by wednesday evening snow showers, cold, windy conditions behind this system and look at the rainfall amounts. we are talking 5 to 7 inches of rain through the south. as you get up along the east coast we're looking at anywhere from 3 to 5 inches of rain and look at the snow. we're talking about 3 to 6 inches.

nbc's tom costello has more on what's being called autonation addiction. >> reporter: it's the end of in today's highly automated cockpits, how much flying do the crews actually do? captain karen con has spent years as a pilot airliner. she worries about younger ones relying too heavy on auto pilot. >> it is there to help you. it is not the actual carrier of the airplane. you need to use it as an ad jungts. it's like another crew member helping you. >> reporter: an outside page of experts raise the red flag that pilots sometimes rely too much on automation system. they lack sufficient or in-depth knowledge and skills. basic piloting errors are thought to have contributed to the crash of an airplane over the atlantic in 2009. of a commuter plane crash in buffalo that same year. perhaps the crash in san francisco this summer. >> what you must mane tain your bake airmanship. >> reporter: as afest, cap taken tom casey, once kept track of how rarely he had to touch the controls on an auto pilot flight, new york to london. from takeoff to touchdown, just seven times. >> that is being in com

tom costello is from dunkin' brands and joins us from san diego.mydunkin, and how long has that been in the pipeline, and where do you think the whole thing is headed? >> we think social media can be very powerful, and we've been engaged with twitter and facebook since 2008, 2007. i started my career at proctor & gamble and learned most powerful marketing tool is recommend by a friend. and i think that social media has the potential to take that to the next level, because it's where people are increasingly going for information and recommendations. so we think there's huge potential with social media and with twitter, but the advertising on there is very different than traditional marketing and media. >> yeah. what is different, john, about twitter? people talk a lot about their ability to target the specific information they have about your interests on your interest graph. do you get the sense that you can more -- that you can more effectively target a single consumer using them versus another platform? >> you know, absolutely. broadcast media do

tom costello has t story for us this morning. tom, good morning. >> reporr: hey, good morning.fact, miami de homicide detectives are on this ce. that doesn mean they think it's a homicide. this is a normal part of the investigatio they don't know if hfell or jump. it's a real mysterwhat happened out over the ocean. f key biscayne, florida, a searchy air and sea for a victim who may have fallen nearly 2,000 feet from private plan it was just afte1:30 in the afternoon when theilot of a small pipeaircraft radioed an urgent call to aircraft controllers. mayday! yday! i ha a door ajar and a passenger that fell down. i am six mes from miami. >> you sd you have a passenger that felout of your plane? >> that's correct, sir he opened the back dr and just fell o the plane. >> reporter: the stunned controller marked the area on the radar and thenotified police, fire and coast guard who began urgent search of th area. anwhile, the pilot returned to e airport for an emeency landing. >> novembe164 lima delta, do you require emergency assistan on the gund? >> i don't. i just have the door on

nbc's tom costello is at the port of miami. tom, good morning to you. >> reporter: hi, savannah.are beautiful. you know, the newest ship can be as big as an aircraft carrier. under international regulations, they have to be able to evacuate everybody within 30 minutes. that's 5,000 to 9,000 people on the open ocean. that would be a huge challenge. they are the giants of the high seas, floating cities, really, capable of carrying 4,000 to 9,000 passengers and crew members. memorable vacations for most, but for some, a nightmare. in february, the "carnival triumph," dead in the water for four days with raw sewage seeping through the ship. in may, a fire on board royal caribbean's "grandeur of the seas," and last year, carnival's "costa concordia" disaster killed 22. on board that day, this family from los angeles had taken 70 different cruises, but no more. >> we will never go on a cruise again, okay, until there is major changes in the cruise line and their safety program. they are not putting passengers' safety first. >> the latest generation of mega cruise ships are just too big

nbc's tom costello went board. >> reporter: at the moment, she is one giant construction prect.ds of men and women working 24/7 to build the mt advanced aircraftarrier ever designed. captain john mye is the ship's first commanding ficer. he took us along for a tour from below deck to high above on the ship's brid. >>his will be your view. >> ectly. you can see it's the besteat in the house. >> rorter: already under construction for fr years, the rald r. ford represents a new super class of aircraf carrier named after the nation's 38th presidenwho was himself a navy veteran of world war ii. er t weekend, president ford's daughter san christened the ship >> the mot of the shi is integrity the helm. it'so fitting. that's what my dad was, integrity. >> when complete, he'll weigh nearly00,000 tons. on board, two nuclearreactors producing 250% more electricity than other carriers. a redesigned flight deck means % more room to launch and recover plane and the island ts 140 feet furer yet standing 20eet taller. a lot of work still has to done. the first sea trials won't begin until febr

tom foreman, cnn. >> thank you for joining me today. i'm carol costello.eigh banfield starts now. >> toronto's mayor denying smoking crack. but admitting to doing a lot of other stupid things. now he's asking police to release that video that everyone has been talking about. >>> also this hour, the disturbing chain of events in the hours before the bullets starting flying in the terminal at l.a.x. >>> plus the warning from the suspect's family that may have come just minutes too late. >>> and from mystery disappearance to miracle rescue, a student falls ten stories before getting wedged in a narrow shaft between his college dorm and a parking garage and he stays that way for 36

the mayor of toronto does it again, tom ford apologizing for threatening to kill someone, "newsroom" starts now. good morning. i'm carol costello, thank you so much for joining me. one of the strongest storms ever recorded on the planet now roaring across the philippines. with wind gusts as strong as 235 miles per hour. we're getting reports of flooding, power outages, roofs torn off homes, trees ripped out of the ground, the super sigh foon has killed three people and more than. 00,000 people reportedly have fled its path. what's worse hundreds of thousands of people affected are still recovering from a 7.1 magnitude earthquake that hit just last month. at this point it's still hard to grasp the full extent of the typhoon's damage. cnn's karen maginnis is tracking the typhoon, australian kathy kn novak, reporter, it's difficult you're in the middle of a typhoon, what is happening? >> reporter: the typhoon is expected to impact the philippines for the next 11 to 12 hours before it heads out towards vietnam. not only is this the strongest possible category 5 storm, what's so destructive about it is is that it has made landfall a

costello. going on right now on capitol hill a senate hearing on the rollout on obama care. there you see tomsking questions of marilyn tavenner. she's the administrator for medicaid and medicare and that branch or organization once in charge of the obama care rollout. but no longer. and we'll continue to monitor her testimony. and if she says anything new and exciting, we'll pass it along to you. >>> let's talk about the president now and his tweaking of his message. a new spin. it's now been five weeks to the date since the rollout of obama care. and it's sputtering website hasn't been the only problem. remember the reassurances that if you liked your plan, you wouldn't have to switch? for nearly four years, the president said this. >> if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan. >> well, the president has a new spin. the white house is now tweaking that message. our senior courthouse correspondent brianna keilar is in washington. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. basically in the face that that promise coul