back stateside we'll bring in tom costello. we know there's been a lot of unconfirmed reports out there. what are the facts we know so far? >> katy touched on the sonar data and whether it in fact shows where or where not this plane may be resting. the head of airasia says there are no confirmed sonar pings coming from any wreckage. we have to see what daylight brings and the search brings as they continue to navigate through this very difficult weather. what we do know is that they have a pretty good sense of where this plane is simply by the wreckage and the bodies that have been found on the surface of the water. whoa know the plane was last at 36,300 feet. we have seen the last radar data coming from that particular region. 36,300 feet. now, it was at 32,000 requested permission to go to 38,000. it only got permission to go to 34,000. but that last bullet point there is important. last radar scope was at 36,300. now, why was it at 36,300 when it had only been given permission to go to 34,000? we don't know. did it catch an

nbc's tom costello is at washington national airport tonight for us. tom, good evening. >> reporter: hi, brian. pretty good day to fly today though at the moment we have some delays in the new york city area. but the next 48 hours could get rather messy as we see travelers and express shippers in that last-minute christmas rush. for fedex and u.p.s. it all comes down to now. after a botched delivery season last year, both companies have hired tens of thousands of workers, even added new flight routes to handle the holiday shipping crush. >> weather is always a real big concern for us. we're concerned about doing our de-icing procedures properly, moving around weather and wind systems. >> reporter: now cargo and commercial airliners are about to be put to the test. >> severe weather will break out across the southern states on the backside over chicago heavy rain and snow and wind. and for the northeast, places like new york and boston, heavy rain and very windy conditions into christmas afternoon. >> reporter: the airports likely affected tomorrow, atla

for more on this we turn now to tom costello who covers aviation for us. tom, careerly weather is hampering the search not only for remains but the wreckage. once they get to the wreckage what are they looking for? >> they want to find the tail section very quickly. that's where they'll find the cockpit voice and data recorders, the so-called black boxes. the flight data recorder has about 1,000 different pieces of data everything from the plane performance, heading, speed, all of that and couple that with the cockpit voice recorder and you hear the conversations between the pilots. what actions did they take and why? what were they saying to each other? did they have a concern about engine performance, about air speed, about weather? all of that will be coupled with the flight data recorder. and then they want to look at the engines themselves. is there any evidence from the engines that maybe they suffered cataclysmic damage from ice or hail. >> tom costello following it all from washington thank you. >>> now to our other major story, just as millions of

nbc's tom costello was there for the launch at the kennedy space center in florida and has our report on it tonight. >> igniters have been lit. >> reporter: it was at 7:05 eastern time this morning from launch pad 37b, when nasa once again made history. >> and liftoff at dawn, the dawn of orion and a new era of american space exploration. >> reporter: speeding at 17,000 miles an hour, the unmanned orion first reached low earth orbit, dropping two booster rockets. the florida crowds gathered to cheer. >> i'll be able to tell my grand kids. i mean, this is just one of those moments that i'll always remember. >> reporter: meanwhile, orion was traveling further than any spacecraft built for humans in 42 years. 3,600 miles out in space, 15 times higher than the space station, all the while sending back spectacular live images of earth. >> all of orion's systems are operating to perfection so far. >> reporter: then the return trip. an unmanned drone captured the fiery re-entry as orion hit the atmosphere. the heat shield withstanding 4,000-degree temperatures. and just like apollo, a specta

we get our report tonight from nbc's tom costello. [ screaming ] >> reporter: by all accounts, it was a terrifying midair experience. american airlines flight 280 flying from seoul, south korea, to dallas, suddenly at 34,000 feet, extreme turbulence. it went on for 30 to 45 minutes. fully loaded food carts, laptops and wine bottles went flying. a flight attendant knocked unconscious after hitting the exit sign. a passenger hit on the head with a flying plate. >> you okay? >> reporter: and some passengers began to pray. >> dear lord, i love my family. >> i haven't seen this. i have flown about 5 million miles, and this was probably the worst i have seen. >> reporter: with the plane a complete mess and passengers injured, the pilot turned back and landed in tokyo. in all, 14 injured, seven taken to area hospitals, including a flight attendant with a broken arm. >> everything that wasn't bolted down or seat-belted flew into the air. >> reporter: today, many of flight 280's passengers arrived in dallas. american airlines says the plane had been routed around a winter storm in the area, bu

here's nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: from movie chase scenes to aerial farmland surveys, wildfireswildlife, law enforcement, package delivery, you name it, the real drone invasion is still waiting on the faa to set the rules. >> i've got the ability to sit and hover and look at something for a while to make sure, is this the person we're looking for? >> reporter: but the nation's leading aviation schools are not waiting. >> nice and stable. >> reporter: already training a new generation how to fly an unmanned aerial system, or uas. when you're first learning how to fly this thing what's the biggest challenge? >> i would say the biggest challenge is the positional awareness of the aircraft. so whether it's flying toward you, whether it's flying away from you, you have some different controls. >> reporter: it's not just small models. >> we're about two miles south. >> reporter: bigger military-sized drones as well. class enrollments up more than 1,000%. >> the hardest part for us in coping with it is how quickly the technology changes. >> reporter: it's a generational shift here at e

we get our report on all of it tonight from nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: the photos and videos from midway airport tell the story on the busiest air travel day in six years the security line stretched a mile long. some of the 30,000 passengers turned to social media. as a 20-plus year business traveler, this is the longest line i've ever seen. back of the line? i don't think i'm at the airport anymore. are you kidding me? asked another. it took seasoned traveler carol dunn an hour just to get through even with her tsa pre-check clearance. >> my first thought was, there is something terribly wrong. there was just a sea of people. i couldn't see any kind of line. >> reporter: the tsa admits it made several mistakes, opening a checkpoint late, failing to staff for the morning rush, and struggling to catch up. aggravating matters midway's very narrow checkpoints. dozens of passengers missed their flights. in a statement tsa says, it is currently reviewing the causes of yesterday's longer than usual wait times. the airport says the backup was cleared by 9:30 a.m. meanwhile sunday and tod

tom costello in our d.c. bureau tonight. tom, thanks. >>> we're back in a moment with the loss being mourned tonight in the world of music. >>> the saxophone solo from "brown sugar" is about as recognizable as any in the western world. we learned today the man who played it, and so much else, bobby keys, has died. he played and toured with the stones for 45 years, recorded with lennon, streisand, harrison, clapton and more. he was the pride of will you lu texas, born on the same day as keith richards, who today called him his soulmate. bobby keys was 70 years old. >>> they called it u2 minus one to mark world aids day. u2 performed a surprise concert in times square without bono, who is home in dublin, recovering from an awful bicycle crash, including broken bones and surgery. as you can see, they found some guys to fill in for him. bruce and chris martin took turns on lead vocals, carrie underwood and kanye also performed. >>> when we come back after one more break, "making a difference," why it may seem like you're on ever

this morning our report from nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: on the streets of moscow, the economic crisis is worsening by the hour with the russian currency in free fall. the ruble has now lost 50% of its value so far this year with the price of oil also in free fall, going from $115 a barrel to 60 since june. the problem is half the revenues come from oil and gas and moscow is still facing crippling actions over its actions in crimea and ukraine. >> it will be up to president putin to decide whether or not these economic costs are worth it to him and the russian people. >> the russian foreign minister was defiant. >> i can ensure you russia will not only survive but come out stronger after this. >> reporter: but the international banking community is losing confidence in russia. >> this crisis is hurting the average russian. when they go to the store and all the food that they buy is imported, it's going to be a lot more expensive. >> reporter: while the drop in oil prices may mean sky high inflation in russia, it's been a boon for americans. more than half the country is paying l

we get more tonight from nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: it's a scenario few people would have predicted just a few years ago when the talk was of $5 a gallon gas. >> we found a bargain for you tonight, $4.35 a gallon. >> reporter: what a difference three years makes. in 33 states at least one station is selling gas below $2 a gallon. gasbuddy.com reports the cheapest cities include dallas at $1.99, tulsa at $1.95 and kansas city at $1.92. >> motorists saving nearly $300 million a day versus prices last year. this is the christmas gift that keeps on giving. >> reporter: what's happening? analysts say there's a price war underway. >> saudi arabia is trying to undermine the u.s. shale oil production at the same time it's undermining iran and russia due to the violence we're seeing in the middle east. >> reporter: meanwhile, u.s. oil production is booming, the highest in 30 years. just as our gas consumption has dropped to 40-year lows. one big reason? more fuel efficient cars. and americans are now changing their habits with retirees and young people leaving the car behind and choosing to

>> tom costello at dca, washington national airport, a busy place tonight. tom, thanks. >>> as we said, there is a lot to this weather system. and for the damage it's already done, it has a lot of ground to cover as christmas day nears. meteorologist dylan dreyer is out on rockefeller plaza tonight. dylan, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. it is going to be a very busy night down south with several tornadoes that have already been reported. and the tornado watch is in effect until 11:00 tonight. now tomorrow we're going to see the severe threat of storms spread from florida up into south carolina where we could again see isolated tornadoes and damaging wind gusts. all up and down i-95 tomorrow we are going to see off and on heavy rain from the south extending all the way up into new england and on the backside of this storm we're expecting about 3 to 6 inches of snow in chicago. so who gets the white christmas? definitely in and around the great lakes because of this storm. we have white on the ground already because of an earlier storm this we

tom costello, nbc news, miami. >>> we're back in a moment with a truly special christmas day deliveryery day is a new opportunity to help make life better right here in san francisco. whether it's helping local businesses like the fruitguys grow and prosper, supporting nonprofits like juma ventures as they fulfill their mission or helping neighborhoods like the tenderloin become vibrant communities. if there's a way to help the people of san francisco thrive and succeed, we'll find it. that's the power of local connections. that's bank of america. >>> a crisis over french fries of all things is easing in japan because of a shortage caused by a labor dispute here in the u.s., mcdonald's had limited orders to only the small size at its 3,000 japanese branches. the country imports most of its frozen fries, but now they've increased shipments by air and from the east coast of the u.s. and the company says all fry sizes will now be available again ten days from now. thank goodness. >>> in this country the call came in just before 6:00 p.m. in philadelphia, and two police officers responded

we get our report tonight from nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: on the streets of moscow, the economic crisis is worsening by the hour with the russian currency in free fall. the ruble has now lost 50% of its value so far this year with the price of oil also in free fall, going from $115 a barrel to $60 just since june. the problem for russia nearly half its revenues come from oil and gas. and moscow is still facing crippling sanctions over its actions in crimea and ukraine. >> it will be up to president putin to decide whether or not these economic costs are worth it to him and are worth it to the russian people. >> reporter: today the russian foreign minister was defiant. >> i can assure you that russia will not only survive but will come out stronger out of this. >> reporter: but the international banking community is losing confidence in russia. >> this crisis is really hurting the average russian. when they go to the store and all the food that they buy that is imported, it's going to be a lot more expensive. >> reporter: while the drop in oil prices may mean sky high inflation in

tom costello, nbc news washington. >>> let's check out what we're paying at the pump in our area. in philadelphia the average price for a gallon of gas is above the national average. it's at 2.60. delaware is closer. south jersey right at that national average mark. $2.31. >>> still ahead, today is the kickoff of mummers fest. we'll tell you where you can get a sneak peek of all the strutting before the big parade. >>> today the mummers will be strutting at the pennsylvania convention center. they'll have the golden slippers on. today is the first day of mummers fest. it's a preview of the mummers parade, which is on new year's day. mummers fest starts at noon today. it runs through december 31st. if you are going to be in center city today, you may want to check out the christmas village in love park. it's the last day of it. the german style market is at 15th and jfk. it opens at 11:00, so just about half an hour. it will stay open until 5:00 tonight. this by the way, was the seventh year for the christmas village in philadelphia. nice crafts there. a lot of handmade stuff. >> a

tom costello, nbc news, daytona beach. >>> celebrating birthdays on this day after christmas, rockery turns 35. oscar winning actor jared leto is 43 and america's most wanted host john walsh is 69. >>> keep it here for more news, weather and sports. aim dara brown. thanks for watching "early today." have a great friday and a terrific weekend. >> announcer: from nbc bay area, this is "today in the bay." >> good morning to you. it is

>> tom costello on the scene for us tonight. tom, thanks. >>> we may be having weather in the news by midweek as we're tracking two big storms taking aim from west to east. a nor'easter is on the move from the carolinas on up the eastern seaboard through maine bringing a mix of snow and heavy rain. and there are warnings of major flooding. on the west coast, northern california about to get slammed by the strongest storm to hit there in about five years. meteorologist janice huff in the weather center with all of it tonight. janice, good evening. >> hi, brian. it is going to be a mess for the east coast and west coast starting with the nor'easter on the east coast. this satellite and radar picture doesn't look impressive. but this storm is going to be developing rapidly and moving up the coast. this is 5:00 a.m. tomorrow hitting norfolk with heavy rain. snow back in the mountains of west virginia. hitting new york city in the afternoon with very heavy rain. and then a bullseye of very heavy snow around the albany area, maybe up

we begin tonight with nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: it was a rare december tornado touching down in southern mississippi, moving right through the town of columbia, knocking out power to thousands, flipping over vehicles and damaging dozens of homes and businesses. >> we had reports of debris falling out of the sky. >> reporter: this weather chaser is there. >> the trees were all completely snapped. buildings completely destroyed. ambulances flipped on top of another car. >> reporter: tonight the marion county general hospital is without power and transferring patients to other hospitals. all part of a massive weather system that brought tornadoes to louisiana and torrential rains to tallahassee. the delays have been building all day. the flight aware misery map showing the eastern and southern cities with the most red. the same airports expected to get even worse as a bigger storm moves in tomorrow. >> our dallas flight's delayed, so i think we might be in danger of missing our connection to palm springs. >> reporter: at new york's laguardia airport, an aircraft fender bender only

tom costello in our d.c. bureau tonight.thanks. >>> we're back in a moment with the loss being mourned tonight in the world of music. in the world of music. i'm angela, and i quit smoking with chantix. people who know me, they say 'i never thought you would quit.' but chantix helped me do it. along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. it gave me the power to overcome the urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. some people had seizures while taking chantix. if you have any of these, stop chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of mental health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix or history of seizures. don' take chantix if you've had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. if you develop these, stop chantix and see your doctor right away as some can be life-threatening. tell your doctor if you ha

nbc's tom costello has our report from gaithersburg, maryland. >> reporter: it was just after 10:45 this morning when the first fire units arrived on scene. >> got a working fire, report of three people in the house. >> reporter: a quiet suburb northwest of washington rocked by fire and explosion when a private jet slammed into several homes. >> the wing went into the front of their house and blew their window out and i guess it hit this house and caught on fire. >> reporter: on the second floor of one home, marie, her newborn and her 3-year-old. >> we have confirmed the loss of the three family members of the gemell family in the house that burned behind us. >> reporter: the plane was on approach to the nearby airport. seconds before the crash other pilots reported many birds in the air. >> we've got an unusual bit of birds out here. >> reporter: on the ground witnesses said the pilot seemed to be in trouble. >> obviously wildly not being able to hold his position, up, down, left, right, a lot of instability. >> reporter: the plane, an embraer phenom 100, flowing very slow for a landing

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we get our report on this tonight from nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: it's a haunting demonstrationw quickly lithium ion batteries could pose a lethal threat to a modern aircraft. in this faa test, a cargo container packed with 5,000 lithium bat ris and a cartridge heater. soon the shipment catches fire. then as temperatures exceed 1100 degrees, a chain reaction and a thunderous explosion ripping apart the container that could have been sitting in an aircraft cargo hold. nbc news aviation analyst captain john cox, an international safety consultant, has spent years investigating the risk of lithium batteries. >> it's a growing threat and one of the few in aviation because we're seeing an increase in the number of batteries and we're seeing a large number of them. >> reporter: crash investigators already blame exploding or overheating lithium bat ris for several accidents. september 2010, a u.p.s. cargo plane with more than 80,000 batteries on board caught fire and crashed near dubai. two pilots were killed. july 2011, an asiana cargo plane with a shipment of electronics and car batt

tom costello nbc news washington. >>> severe storms are rolling into the south this weekend, potentially complicating holiday travel for millions. for more let's bring in weather channel meteorologist kim cunningham who's got the latest for us. hi kim. >> hi good evening, lester. and, yes, we're watching storms producing some heavy rain as well for the southeast. that's going to be with us maybe for the next 48 hours across the southeast. so if you live across the south, just make sure you're prepared in this area for possibly two to three inches of rain which could mean localized flooding and the potential of some severe storms. here's our forecast for sunday. we move it east slightly. the heaviest of rain will be in this area here in the southeast. we're going to see some showers moving into d.c. and new york city. that could mean maybe some airport delays. so make sure you check with your carrier before you go but the good news is it's rain versus snow for most of us. so the roadways shouldn't be too bad. just be careful. but then we're going to focus here in the west where we have ou

nbc 10's tom costello reports. >> reporter: it was a sudden violent explosion in a suburban cul-de-sac. a small jet plane spiraling to the ground and slamming into three homes se s setting off an inferno of exploding jet fuel. inside a bathroom, 36-year-old marie gemmell was trying to shield her two children. the fire was so intense, they were unable to reach them. >> we have confirmed the loss of the three family members of the gemmell family. >> reporter: the father was at work and the 5-year-old in preschool. neighbors were left stunned. >> look out and to see a ball of flame right across the street from your house. it was terrifying. >> reporter: the plane was attempting to land at an airport. all three on the plane died, including the pilot, the ceo of a healthcare company, who had crashed another plane at the same airport four years ago. just before yesterday's crash, other pilots had reported an unusual number of birds in area, then watched as the plane suddenly went down. >> we have a crash at the end of the runway. call emergency services. >> reporter: the ntsb is reviewing th

tom costello joins us now from washington, d.c.is the latest on the search and the investigation from your sources? >> it's being hampered a bit right now. high sea swells and winds. it won't keep the operations on hold. you still have navies operating in that area. they are used to operating in rough weather. as for pinpointing the location of the fuselage itself sitting 150 feet or so below the surface of the water, that could take some time. they want to milk sure they pick up all the debris on the surface they can. and then look for the fuselage which probably still contains many, if not most of the victims. and looking for the tail section of the plane, which will hold those all-important black boxes, cockpit voice and flight data recorder, in particular will have about 1,000 points of telemetry data recorded. it will tell investigators what condition the plane was in as it was in its final moments of flight. what was the pilot doing, co-pilot doing? what was the weight the fuel consumption? that's why they want to fine the ta

for more tom costello joins us from our washington newsroom. so how might the ongoing weather problems complicate the efforts to continue the recovery? >> well, cloorearly it will kofrply indicate matters, but several navys will be working through bad weather to pinpoint, isolate as best they can the fuselage of the down the aircraft. it vael areally is a forensics investigation, try to determine where on the bottom of the sea they can find the major pieces of the fusefuselage where might they find the cockpit, the main cabin section as they collect all of the evidence floating on the surface. but ultimately this tale will really be told through the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder. the flight data reporter literally records hundreds and perhaps even thousands of pieces of data, parameters of data. everything from the air speed to whether they had any sort of a computer issue to what their headwind was, their tail wind where were their flaps for example. the total flight configuration, what was it set up like. in addition to

tom costello covers aviation for us there. tom, i want to ask airasia officials are saying it's not confirmed that the wreckage has been found but if it is on the seabed in waters between 100 to 165 feet deep how easy or difficult is it going to be for divers to reach that? >> i think it will be a challenge. i think you have hit the right word. divers. we're talking about divers being able to go down to the wreckage as 0 positived to an unmanned vehicle. a submerseible vehicle we saw for air france and the kind of vehicles we saw used in searching for malaysian airlines flight 370. it's a relatively shallow sea. 100 feet down is within the capability of the navies. it has the divers that technology, that expertise available. the australians would, as well so this is, you know in a terrible situation at least the good news is that it should be a retrievable wreck and they should be able to find those black boxes. >> tom, we know that bad weather has effected the search area today and indonesia officials have been saying that the

we turn to tom costello to find out the latest. what's the latest on this investigation? and they have this shadow on the water. once daybreak come they will be working through challenging weather, but they need to try to recover what's left of the debris and the victim it is on board this plane and try to identify the pieces of the fuselage if that's what they see on the bottom of the java sea. they will probably send down divers and maybe unmanned vehicles looking for the tail section was plane. they want to find the black boxes, the voice recorder and the flight data recorder located in the tail section of the plane. when they find that, they will retrieve it and bring it to the surface and hand it over. it will be french investigators who take the lead and not the ntsb. not an american plane or carrier. there american-built engines on the plane, but this is a french-built plane being an airbus 8320. the french have authorities on the scene and chances are they will take the black boxes back to france for analysis. that will give us an idea of what the pilot was going

keir simmons is live in london and tom costello is covering this as it impacts travel in general. she he's in washington, d.c. >> tamron, good morning. let me update. just as we go on-air here we're told the air space over london is opened up. but that traffic volumes are being restricted in accordance with capability. that's from the national air traft service here in the u.k. that run the air space. it's the froufl here. just some detail the airport to the north of london said it's having problems. to the south of london having problems. it is accepting flights but flights aren't taking off. most crucially heathrow airport to the west seems to be having problem fl problem. there are some reports there are no flights leaving or landing at heathrow. the numbers there around 1300 flights air transport movements they're called. a few years ago the numbers from heathrow airport. 82 airlines serving 180 countries. as tom will tell you, tamron, heathrow is a crucial hub for flights leaving the united states trying to get to europe, trying to get to the middle east it will quickly be ca

joining me now is nbc news correspondent tom costello. o, tom, a computer glitch can shut down the skies over london? >> yeah. what we know is this was some sort of an air traffic control sequencing glitch. they say it is not related to any sort of a power outage and they do not believe it's any sort of a security or hack attempt. something quite simply they think went wrong with the software somewhere. at this hour london heathrow, london city airport, gatwick are showing delays between three and a half to five hours for arriving flights and about the same for departing flights. even dublin is affected by this because of the tremendous backlog now that we've seen systemwide, not only in the u.k. but of course in ireland and extending across the continent in europe. so dublin reporting delays for both departures and arrivals of three to three and a half hours or so. this particular air traffic control center handles about 5,000 flights a day and most importantly it really handles that air traffic above london. and of course london heathrow

nbc's tom costello has more from reagan nationality airport. >> reporter: good day from a rather frigid d.c. it is likely to get warmer as the week progresses but we're expecting a lot of rain, wind and that system is going to be impacting nations -- the nation's travel. let's take a look at the major impacts at airports we're expecting starting tomorrow, starting tuesday. as that rain starts to kick in, we're expecting weather impacts in atlanta and chicago. low clouds and fog likely to impact operations in d.c., new york and also snow in minneapolis. but christmas eve, these are the airports to watch as things get dicey with that major storm moving up the coast. so, we're expecting the major hubs to be affected. atlanta, up to charlotte, up to d.c. and new york and philly and boston and then west, chicago is going to be impacted likely, cleveland, detroit. that day, christmas eve day, i hate to tell you, could be a real dicey day. the good news is, this is rain not snow and ice. then on christmas day itself, really it should be a pretty good day for travel. it's going to be a light tr

tom costello, nbc news daytona beach. >>> nba on christmas day featured five games and one player who made a holiday fashion statement. he was rocking a christmas themed suit. now, remind you, she is 7'1" so that is a whole lot of fabric. to the game now, the clipper es leading scorer of the night with 24 points. beating the warriors 186 handing them their second loss at the staples center in three days. >> number 23, lebron james. >> king james received a warm welcome on his entire to miami but his former teammates did not wait long to spoil that reunion. james finished with 30. but they fell short heat win it 101-91. to new york, brought the spark against the knicks. then late in the fourth, quincy acy bumps hard into a wall knocking him down and a scuffle ensues before the two were separated by other players. acy appeared to throw a punch toward johns walls neck. that resulted in a flagrant foul. he was ejected from the game. they handed the knicks their 16th loss in 17 games. lebron james and stefan curry are the leading votes so for the all-star steam. >>> and in college hoops, g

nbc national correspondent tom costello takes an inside look at what exactly happens to your bags while you're flying, and how to avoid problems. >> reporter: mid-morning at miami international. >> three claim checks, three bags checked. >> reporter: and the biggest baggage system in the western hemisphere is once again being put to the test. 11 miles of computer-guided belts carrying 60,000 bags every day. but what you don't see is what's behind the counter. from the baggage control room to the tsa's extra screening rooms. >> to get that behind-the-scene view, we're checking this bag, but ours has three cameras. down the belt and very quickly the bag passes through a giant tsa scanning machine looking for explosives. if your luggage is one of the very few that trips the alarm, screen officers could send it here for a hand search. only 5% of bags are ever physically opened. today laptops, wine bottles, christmas gifts and food are getting a second look. and a pass. the officer knows what to look for because the image pops up right on his screen. it could be electronics, it could be anyt

this morning, our report from nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: on the streets of moss cao, the russian currency is in freefall testimony ruble has now lost 50% of its value so far this year with the price of oil also if freefall, going from $115 a barrel to 60 just since june. the problem for russia, nearly half its revenues come from oil and gas and moscow is facing crippleing sanction over actions in crimea and ukraine. >> it will be up to president putin to decide whether or not these economic costs are worth it to him and are worth it to the russian people. >> reporter: the russian foreman was defiant. >> russia will not only survive but come out stronger out of this. >> reporter: but the international community is hurting russia. >> reporter: when they go to the store, all food they buy is imported, it's going to be a lot more expensive. >> reporter: while the drop in oil prices may mean sky high inflation for russia, it's been a boone for americans. more than half the country is now paying less tan $2.50 a gallon. >>> prosecutors in los angeles have decided not to proceed sexual

with more on that and what investigators will be paying very close attention to, is nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: if flight 8501 is resting at the bottom of the java sea, a priority for search teams will be finding the tail section that holds the plane's cockpit voice and flight data recorders. while the flight was thought to be at 32,000 feet, flightaware's radar image shows it at 36,300. the pilot had asked to climb to 38,000 feet to avoid bad weather but air traffic control denied the request because of other air traffic in the area. those planes managed to navigate around the storm and land safely. but at its last known location, airasia may have been near stall speed. the question -- why? >> whatever occurred occurred quickly and resulted in the crew not being able to successfully deal with it, and as a result the airplane's at the bottom of the ocean. >> reporter: investigators will likely look at the plane's pitot tubes that help calculate its air speed. if the tubes iced over in severe weather, the plane's flight computers may have displayed bad data, confusing the pilots. t

. >>> nbc tom costello covers aviation and anthony roman is a former flight instructor. they join me now for perspective this morning. tom, let's start with you with the debris and the bodies located here we know that's progress in the search. how does that impact the investigation? >> oh i think this is exactly what they've been hoping and looking for. what they will try to do is pinpoint the exact location of the fuselage which maybe i underscore close to where the debris is. keep in mind we've had two days of wind two days of currents. it's possible some of the debris you're seeing on the surface of the water may have floated some distance. but at least they now have a starting point. they'll try to backtrack, take a look at the wind currents, the sea currents and get a sense where this debris might be. and then they'll begin the difficult job of going down into the sea, down into the ocean about 150 feet below the surface looking for the fuselage and most importantly, looking for the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder. and those two black boxes, as th

tom costello. >> reporter: if flight 8501 is resting at the bottom of the java sea, a priority for search teams be finding the tail section that holds the plane's cockpit voice and flight data recorders. the flight was supposed to be at 32,000 feet flight aware shows it at 36 300. the pilot had asked to climb to 38,000 feet to avoid bad weather but air traffic control deny the request because of other air traffic in the area. those planes managed to navigate around the storm and land safely. but airasia may have been near stall speed. the question -- why? >> whatever occurred occurred quickly and resulted in the crew not being able to successfully deal with it and as a result the airplane's at the bottom of the ocean. >> reporter: investigators will likely look at the plane's pitot tubes that help calculate its air speed. if they iced over in severe weather, the flight's computers may have given bad data confusing the pilots. that's what happened with air france 447. the pilots panicked grabbed the controls then stalled and crashed the plane into the atlantic. former ntsb board member --

keir simmons is live in london and tom costello is covering this as it impacts travel in general.me update. just as we go on-air here we're told the air space over london is opened up. but that traffic volumes are being restricted in accordance

. >> we begin with tom costello with more on the first launch of nasa's new orion spacecraft. eal down there, tom. >>> good morning. this is what's happening. 7:05 eastern time orion will liftoff on a delta 4 rocket. it is going to accelerate 20,000 miles per hour. it is headed for a further destination. 3600 out. it will loop the earth twice, come back. much like apollo it will reenter the earth's atmosphere. it will determine exactly how well the spacecraft holds up for potential future missions. beyond low earth orbi nasa is now turning the page for a whole new path for space exploration. . >>> of course the "today" show will have complete cora o the launch coming up in a few minutes at 7:00 a.m. right after news 4 today. >>> protests erupt across the country over the death of another african-american man at the hands of a white police officer. the latest protests can connected to the death of eric garner. he was placed in a choke hold by a new york city police officer in july. people flooded times square and were close to rockefeller center during last night's tree lighting

now we go to nbc's tom costello. thanks for joining me. do we know any more about why this plain went down? we know the weather conditions were treacherous but we also know other plains were able to maneuver through the storm. >> we don't really have any answers and we're not going to have any until we recover -- or they recover the black boxes, the flight data recorders and the cockpit voice recorder. the voice recorder records conversations between the pilots. we'll hear what they were talking about, what their concerns were. then we'll have about 1,000 data points off the telemetry, the pitch of the aircraft altitude heading, the speed. what the trim was like. what the wait was like what kind of alarm was going off, what kind of data. did they have bad sensor data how the engines were performing. all of that will be critical as they try to piece together what happened. it won't be one data recorder but both flight data recorders coming together to paint this more thorough picture. they'll also be as i said inspecting the conditions of t

tom costello, nbc news, washington. >> so you just go to the moon, you don't care about mars, right? >> exactly, that's far enough. >>> what's going on with our weather? >> it's unusually warm. hovering into the mid and upper 60s. near 70 across much of virginia. overnight, a big change, turning much colder. and by midday tomorrow, a light bit of a wintry mix. and that light blue zone just north and west of the met tri area might get a light dusting on some grassy areas. maybe a little bit of a light glas offizing further north and west. up to an inch maybe there, shenandoah valley. after we get through tomorrow, with temperatures in the 30s, up near 60 on wednesday. up anner 40s thursday and sunny. maybe more rain friday and no wintry mix for the weekend. just maybe some chilly rain. >> all ght, thank you, tom. >>> voice fans, listen up, tonight is your chance to vote for sterling virginia native ryan sill. sill has been in the bottom three for two weeks. with your votes, sill was the instant save last week. you may have seen that. you can watch ryan compete tonight at 8:00 right he

here is nbc's tom costello. >> runway 301. >> reporter: it happens more than 70,000 times each day. 14,000ffic controllers assuring 2 million of us arrive safely. the number of controllers on duty is falling fast. 30 years ago, president reagan fired striking air traffic controllers who walked off the job. >> they forfeited their jobs and will be terminated. >> reporter: now the 11,000 controllers hired to replace them are approaching the mandatory retirement age. >> there will be a large number of controllers leaving by their 56th birthdays. >> reporter: the faa is in something of a hiring frenzy. 10,000 controllers in the next ten years. >> 965. contact departure. >> reporter: now the nation's aviation colleges are in high demand with students hoping to get a leg up before applying to the faa academy. qualities? someone who can multitask and think fast and remain calm. at dowling college, sasha hopes she can get the job. >> that will give me that upper hand when i go to class. that is what i have been dealing with the last few years. >> reporter: the faa requirements for a spot at the ac