that are not true about george. how he's being portrayed is just an absolute lie. >> robert zimmerman insists his son acted in self-defense. >> he talked about taking a, quote, leap of fate. federal charges filed against that jetblue pilot that had a midair meltdown. the captain's mental health coming into question, whether he should have been at the controls in the first place. where's mom? what are you stopping for? >> here it is, right here, right here. >> we're out, we're out, we're out. >> dramatic cell phone video captures one family's harrowing escape from a fire burning in colorado. two key endorsements for mitt romney to tell you about. one, a potential running mate. the other, a former president. the polls show the gop front-runner has a lot of work ahead if he plans to beat president obama. we start with new developments overnight in the trayvon martin investigation. just released video obtained by abc of george zimmerman on the night he fatally shot the 17-year-old. the tape shows zimmerman, take a look there. he's being led in handcuffs from a police car to be questioned at the sanford, florida police headquarters. he seems to be moving normally. it's difficult to see any outward sign of the physical injury zimmerman was said to have suffered in a life and death struggle with trayvon martin. trayvon's mother has this reaction on cnn's "piers morgan" last night. >> this video is the icing on the cake. this is not the first part of evidence they have had. they've had the 911 tapes and also had witnesses. this is in addition to what the sanford police department already has. this video is clear evidence there is some problem with this case and that he needs to be arrested. >> we're also hearing for the first time from george zimmerman's father. cnn's martin savage is live in sanford, florida. what is he saying? what is his father saying, martin? >> good morning, zoraida. this is robert zimmerman. he spoke for the first time on camera at least. we heard from him several times writing op-ed pieces. this is the first time he's spoke on camera in defense of his son. his account is certainly the most dramatic and detailed of george zimmerman on that particular night. he says that george told him trayvon was the aggressor here. listen. >> trayvon martin walked up to him, asking do you have [ bleep ] problem? george said, no, i don't have a problem. and started to reach for his cell phone. at that point, he was punched in the nose. his nose was broken and he was knocked to the concrete. trayvon martin got on top of him and just started beating him in the face, in his nose, hitting his head on the concrete. >> reporter: it's quite clear that the zimmerman family believes that george's account as to what happened on that terrible night has not been portrayed enough. robert went on to describe the altercation. listen again. >> after nearly a minute of being beaten, george was trying to get his head off the concrete, trying to move with trayvon on him, into the grass. in doing so, his firearm was shown. trayvon martin said something to the effect of, you're going to die now or you're going to die tonight, something to that effect. he continued to beat george and at some point george pulled his pistol and did what he did. >> reporter: okay. what is really interesting about that last account there is -- first we should point out robert zimmerman was not there. what he is obviously recounting is what he says is george zimmerman, what he told him, his son, in other words. what is interesting there is that there have been some points in this discussion where there has been -- they've alluded to the fact that maybe there was a struggle over a gun. this has come from some witnesses and friends of george zimmerman. the father doesn't talk about a struckle over a gun. the father right there says george pulls out the gun, makes a conscious decision, fires the weapon and trayvon martin is killed. once again, new revelations, new insights but not an eyewitness account. zoraida? >> martin, one last question for you here. all of that was before we actually saw this new video of george zimmerman as well, right? his dad spoke before that? >> reporter: actually, i think that was on the evening news last night. it might have been after the video sequence had already appeared on network news. so this may have been a means of trying to counter that. there seems to be a lot of this beginning on. for every release that may favor one side of the story telling, there is quickly some effort to counter is with, well, but then there's this. >> it's kind of tough. you don't really see signs of a struggle there, although we can't really see that video very closely. >> reporter: no, you don't. >> martin savage, thank you so much. soledad o'brien will host a town hall meeting tonight "beyond trayvon, race and justice in america." see it here friday night at 8:00 and 10:00 eastern time. >> six minutes past 5:00. the jetblue pilot that had to be wrestled down in midair is facing federal charges for interfering with his very own flight crew. now for the first time we're hearing minute-by-minute what happened in the cockpit. the captain, osbon scolded air traffic controllers over the radio for making too much noise and then turned all the radios off. he started preaching about how things don't matter and said we're not going to vegas and yelled we need to take a leap of faith. listen to the video after that. eventually, the first officer had to tell flight attendants and passengers over the p.a. to pin him down. ultimately he and an off-duty pilot headed that plane to amarillo, texas, instead, a full diversion, making a safe but frightening emergency landing in that city. we have new details live from washington. federal charges, very serious. what is he facing and how serious are these charges, lizzie? >> they're federal charges, interfering with a flight crew. if they carried the maximum penalty that would be up to 20 years in prison plus a pretty significant fine. what you get in the affidavit that came along with the charging documents is a fairly disturbing picture of what was going on inside that plane. i kind of want to walk through different parts of what was going on. you're right, the first roifr essentially noticed things not long after takeoff from jfk. let's walk through a couple of points here. we know from the affidavit that clayton osbon showed up late, missed a crew briefing. he did talk back to the air traffic controllers, turned off the radio as you said. dimmed some of the monitors inside the cockpit and began giving what is describe as a sermon. then as things progress a little bit, he started talking about we need to take a leap of faith. this is the line that got the first officer's attention, we're not going to vegas. this is about 3 1/2 hours into the flight. at this point, the first officer realizes he'd like to get clayton osbon out of the cockpit. he gets up to go to the lavatory. at that point, the other pilot who was taking a free ride came into the cockpit. osbon had somewhat off behavior. he grabbed a flight attendant's hand, started banging on the lavatory door, he talked with some of the passengers on the way to the back of the plane but the cockpit door was locked and closed. he ran up to the front of the plane, banged on the cockpit door. the affidavit says the first officer was worried he might even get through the door. and at that point, that's when the passengers and the flight attendants helped subdue him. they essentially sat on him for 15 minutes or so as the plane came from cruising altitude down to what was certainly a safe landing in amarillo. we should emphasize all the passengers were absolutely fine after this happened, ashleigh. >> physically, that's for sure. >> physically. >> can you imagine having witnessed that and seen that and seeing it coming from someone in uniform, too. lizzie, thank you so much for that. nine minutes past the hour. colorado is putting its controlled burn program for wildfires on hold after one got out of control near denver. look at this. two dozen homes destroyed, two people killed, one still missing. one family's narrow escape from the flames was captured on cell phone video. >> daddy, where's mom? what's she stopping for? >> it's down there. it's down there now. >> she [ bleep ]. [ bleep ]. >> whoa. >> there it is, right here, right here. >> oh, my gosh. >> it's okay. we're out, we're out, we're out. >> oh, my goodness. we're going it talk live to the family. doug, kimberly olson and their children in the next hour. that's at 6:40 eastern. this just in at about this time every morning we tend to bring you bad news. i'm apologizing for it off the bat. the national average for gas just announced by aaa, sorry, $3.92 a gallon. it's up a cent, a full cent. the higher the gas goes, the more people will cut back on their spending. an a brand new survey from the u.s. travel association says more than half of you back there will cut back on your vacation plans this summer as the gas goes up another quarter or so as is expected. >> the airline fares are going up as well. it makes you rethink all of your travel options. >> i have starting getting more organized in the later part of my life. i book flights a good six months in advance and i still find i can rarely find a flight under $500. >> it's terrible. we are the bearer of bad news this morning. we'll have good news, too. 11 minutes past the hour. ahead on "early start," spike lee issuing an apology. he tweeted the wrong address for george zimmerman. a couple was forced to leave their home in fear. take a close look, this shows increased activity on this launch pad in north korea. and some controversies with regard to a missile launch that is planned for mid-april. we'll break down what that circle tells you and what that circle tells you, too, in just a moment. did you hear about the mega millions madness? >> oh, yeah. >> what would you do with $500 million? >> i'd be right back here working with you. >> i would, too. >> i love my job. >> i would, too. i don't know. what would you do with it? >> we'd change our hours. you're watching "early start." nent color matching creme right where you need it. then rinse. in ten minutes zap those grays and get on with your day. nice 'n easy root touch-up. and it hasn't been going exactly as planned. 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[ female announcer ] introducing new nature valley protein bars. 100% natural ingredients like roasted peanuts... ♪ ...creamy peanut butter, and a rich dark chocolate flavor. plus, 10 grams of great tasting protein in every bar. so it's energy straight from nature to you. new nature valley protein bars. find them in the granola bar aisle. welcome back. 15 minutes paragraph the hour. time to check the stories making news this morning. here is christine romans. good morning to you. >> good morning. filmmaker spike lee is apologizing for a retweet that may have forced a sanford, florida, couple to leave their home in fear. this retweet listed an address supposedly belonging to trayvon martin's shooter george zimmerman. elaine and david mcclain say they have a son named william george zimmerman who lived with them in the mid-1990s. the mcclains say they had to go to a hotel to get away from the hate mail and the media. spike lee tweeting last night, i deeply apologize to the mcclain family for retweeting their address. it was a mistake. please leave the mcclains in peace. a new satellite aimagery shows increased activity here. the launch is expected between april 12th and april 16th. it would, of course, violate several u.n. resolutions as well as a recent agreement with the u.s. to end its income ambitions in exchange for food. rupert murdoch's news corp. is reportedly working on a national u.s. sports network to compete with espn. news corp. is already acquiring broadcast rights from tv carriers and sports organizes and could launch later this year. for an expanded look at all of our top stories, head to cnn.com/earlystart. ladies? all right. thank you so much, christine. let's head over to rob marciano and check the travel weather. >> we start you off with what's going to happen across the midsection of the country which is a potential for severe weather. a storm coming out of the rockies will begin to crank up that may kick up winds. again, mostly north of denver. we'll check in on the fire. 15% containment here, southwest of denver by about 25 miles, temperatures will be in the 60s. gusty winds in the afternoon to about 20 miles an hour. showers across parts of new england, upstate new york, some of those in the form of snow. still trying to hang on to winter there. you have to go to extreme northern spots, the bigger cities fairly mild. they are heading towards chicago. for our friends in the pacific northwest, either getting up really early or staying up late, spring is certainly typical in the way of some showers and some snow and some dreary stuff. temperatures today, 79 in kansas city, 55 in chicago and 55 degrees in new york city. a little bit of a dose of reality there. the 80s from last week seem to be just a dream. guys, back to you. >> all right, rob, thanks. 18 minutes paragraph the hour. here's an early read on the local stories making national headlines. you have the "new york times" this morning. >> we have "the new york times" for you. you have to open up pretty deep into the paper to get the headline that says "for skittles death brings both profit and risk." way down here on page a-14. this interesting story about how skittles has become this rallying cry, a cultural icon for those protesting the movement. trayvon was carrying skittles and iced tea when he was shot. of course, he was unarmed. you see pictures like this all over the country at rallies. you see stacks and piles of the candy at all of these rallies as well. some protesters have been sending packages of skittles in the sanford police department, all in an effort to protest them not arresting george zimmerman in this case. skittles are made by wrigley. some are asking wrigley to donate the profits from this candy. they are deeply saddened they respect the family's privacy. remember the twinkie defense with the harvey milks killing? murders of the mayor of san francisco and, of course, harvey milk who was the -- he was the san francisco -- i'm trying to remember -- gosh, i had it right here a second ago. that was a problem for twinkie. they didn't want their brand to be associated with such a negative and tragic story. i think that's probably the same issue for skittles as well. >> i love that the girls at spelman college are buying them in bulk and reselling them for more money and will give it to trayvon's family. >> it's not the kind of brand you want to be associated with. still ahead, when fires attack. amazing video of a fireworks factory. look at that. it is exploding. can you imagine that explosion? rockets shooting out from the flames as people run. also, mass hysteria over this, a jackpot record in a lottery. it is close -- close to 500,000 -- close to $500 million. >> folks are inlooing up to buy tickets. >> it is unbelievable. we're in on it here, too. we'll get you the lowdown on this big jackpot coming up. you're watching "early start." all those veggies and beans, that's what may help lower your cholesterol and -- well that's easy [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. splenda® essentials™ no calorie sweetener with b vitamins, the first and only one to help support a healthy metabolism. three smart ways to sweeten. same great taste. splenda® essentials™. welcome back. it's 24 minutes past 5:00. we're minding your business this morning. one day -- >> i like this story. >> it's aspirational. >> we'll be millionaires if our office pool pays off. >> more than just millionaires, sister. >> how many of us are in the pool? >> i think 30, right. >> a lot. >> 34. >> 35. 35. >> we're probably at this point going to have less than $5 million apiece. >> we're doing what everybody is doing. you're pooling your money. >> the chances are basically you have almost as good chance if you find it on a subway grate in new york. if you have high interest credit card debt you have no business spending 10 bucks on a lottery ticket because you're not going to win. here we go top 120 million to 1. that's not stopping anybody. in george hjorth they're selling 150,000 tickets an hour. this is aspirational, you guys. people want to win. i actually put five bucks in. i kind of have enjoyed the last couple of days thinking about what i would do with it. may the odds ever be in your favor? you're 18 to 125 times more likely to die of a flesh-eating bacteria and more likely to have an asteroid hit you in 2029. i recommend you take the lump sum if you're good with money. you want the use of the money. you need to consider about a third is going to go to taxes. keep your head down. don't buy a maserati. most people lose all this money within ten years. the people who don't lose the money are very smart with it. they put a bunch of people around them. i'm available for financial planning and advice. you do strategic charitable donations, help people close to you but don't go crazy. >> i love this. i know what my first purchase would be. >> what. >> you ready? "how to speak money" by christine romans and ali velshi. >> if you win the lottery, you could buy all the books. >> it's fun. think about what you would do. use this as a personal finance moment. look at how much money you have, what's coming in and what's going on and let's try to advance our situations even if we don't win the lottery. >> i've enjoyed the camaraderie we've had. this is better than a starbucks latte. >> hopefully we don't end up in court because somebody didn't put all the money in. >> dean, you hear that? >> on a positive note, we're going to win. still ahead on "early start" because we still work here, folks, two big endorsements for mitt romney. republicans rallying around him but can he beat president obama? a congressman and ex-black panther booted from the house floor. for what? there he is. bobby rush. for wearing a hoodie. you're watching "early start." thinning skin, , by strengthening its moisture barrier, for improved texture and elasticity in 2 weeks. reveal healthy, supple skin. aveeno skin strengthening. in your breakfast cereal, what is? now, in every box of general mills big g cereal, there's more whole grain than any other ingredient. that's why it's listed first. get more whole grain than any other ingredient... just look for the white check. ♪ why do you whisper, green grass? ♪ [ all ] shh! ♪ why tell the trees what ain't so? ♪ [ male announcer ] dow solutions use vibration reduction technology to help reduce track noise so trains move quieter through urban areas all over the world. together, the elements of science and the human element can solve anything. 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[ male announcer ] solutionism. the new optimism. it is 30 minutes past the hour. welcome back to "early start." i'm ashleigh banfield. >> and i'm zoraida sambolin. >> we're very happy you're with us this morning. time to check the stories making news. new police surveillance video obtained by abc shows george zimmerman on the left in handcuffs the night trayvon martin was killed. he claims he shot martin after the teenager brutally attacked him. the video shows no obvious signs of physical injuries. trayvon's mother says the video is, quote, icing on the cake. she wants zimmerman arrested. a u.s. congressman was removed from the floor of the house for wearing this, a hoodie. not just for wearing it but putting the hoodie up like this. he was giving a speech about trayvon martin. bobby rush, a former black panther, democrat from illinois, he told members of the house that racial profiling has got to stop. he then put up the hoodky on his gray sweatshirt and put on sunglasses. right away he was declared out of order and the gavel came down and a clerk led him away because of rules on house floor about not wearing a hat. federal charges filed against the jetblue pilot who had a midair meltdown. the co-pilot saying the captain, clayton osbon, talked about takinging a, quote, leap of faith before passengers were forced to grab him and hold him down. the captain's wife told police she didn't notice anything weird when he left for work. pope benedict calling for annan end to the u.s. trade embargo with cuba. the pontiff wrapping up his meeting to cuba with a face-to-face meeting with fidel castro. the pope calls is restrictive economic measures imposed from outside that country. look at this video. of all the things to catch fire, it is spitting out fire. a fire so big, police evacuated everyone for two miles. it broke out at a fireworks factory in thailand last night. it's unclear how that fire broke out. two warehouses burned down and rockets were shooting from the flames. the factory workers had already left for the day. so we're happy to report no one was injured there. what a display. >> fireworks factory. that's a bummer. 32 mines past 5:00. mitt romney picking up critical endorsements from two key republican heavyweights. these are the ones a lot of people have been waiting for. it's bolstering the prospects for an obama/romney showdown in november. one, former president george h. walker bush. he endorsed mitt romney. he's planning to do it actually today in houston. but we got the official word from the florida senator marco rubio that he is definitely endorsing mitt romney and already people have talked about marco rubio being a potential running mate for mitt romney. he did this last night on fox news. >> well, i am beginning to endorse mitt romney. the reason why, not only because he's going to be the republican nominee but he offers such a stark contrast to the president's record. look at the president's record. this is someone who has run the country not very well over the last three years but has no experience beyond doing that. at the same time, he has no experience with the private sector or the free enterprise system. in mitt romney we have a candidate, an alternative, in addition to being successful as a governor, running an important state has also been successful in the private sector and offers a clear alternative to the direction this president is going to take our country. >> if mitt romney is in fact the eventual nominee, it turns out he may have a lot of work to do. at least according to a cnn/orc poll that's just out, here's how the numbers would shake out. president obama would come in with 54% of the vote while mitt romney would be quite a ways behind with 43% of the vote. cnn's joe johns has been following the developments on the trail yesterday. george herbert walker bush coming out with his endorsement possibly later on today. not possibly, for sure he says later on today. big deal? >> yes, but it's more symbolic than anything, ashleigh. this endorsement is at bush's office in houston. going to be a glorified photo-op we're hearing. this is not a secret. president george h.w. bush has signaled that he supports romney. his wife did robo calls for romney. all the way back in december this president bush said he thinks romney is the best guy for the job. what does it all mean really? it is another sign the republican establishment is getting behind mitt romney as a front-runner. but you've got to be honest, what does it mean in the long term for romney's candidacy? probably not a whole lot. romney's gotten a ton of endorsements this election cycle, frankly, it hasn't saved him from a bruising battle in the primaries. you just pointed out, if you look at the latest cnn/orc polls, ashleigh, president obama has a double digit lead over romney. in the head-to-head matchup, a lot of people expect the election to be close regardless of the nominee. voters who oppose president obama are highly motivated to go to the polls. tight race. whoever is there and it certainly looks at least right now, like it's going to be mitt romney. >> you know, joe, the president has just inched up over the 50% mark for approval rating which is a significant milestone as well. but i have to ask you, as we've been watching this primary season, the big phenomenon has been the roller coaster. does anybody not think that perhaps this moment where obama has the significant lead over these theoretical matchups could be a roller coaster moment? >> yes. that's sort of what it looks like, exactly right. a roller coaster moment, because as i said, i mean, this president, while on one hand he has a 50% approval rating, that seems to be very important. on the other hand, if you go out to some of these red states -- and i have been to a number of them -- people say the most important thing for republicans is to get rid of president obama. and when you listen to that kind of talk, it's pretty clear, there are a lot of people who really want to get to the polls. we'll have to see what's going to happen. >> that's what they call scientifically motivation. joe johns waking up with us early. nice to see you this morning. >> good to see you. >> thanks. >> 36 minutes past the hour. now to the debate over health care reform. the white house is keeping a very low profile this morning. many league observers believe that that individual mandate portion is in trouble. the white house is refusing to speculate on the possibility that the law could be unconstitutional. they may be mum but party leaders, they're weighing in. >> i think that this was one of the signature legislative accomplishments, unquote, of the obama administration. and we argued that it was unconstitutional at the time. if that's substantiated by the united states supreme court, i don't see how that could possibly help the president politically. >> if you got rid of this law, day one, immediately, you add $2 trillion back to the deficit and you wind up with a whole bunch of americans who will be told, sorry you don't have insurance anymore even though you have terminal cancer. sorry you're not covered even though it's a pregnancy but that's a pre-existing condition. >> the supreme court is expected to decide on the constitutionality of the president's health care overall in june. >> 38 minutes past 5:00. workers in spain are trying to bring that country to a crawl. take a look at your screen. this is a strike that broke out one minute after midnight. spain's unions are challenging the country's new conservative government because of strong austerity measures there. state tv in spain says about five dozen demonstrators were detained by police. several injuries reported as well. this all comes one day before billions more in painful cuts by the government are scheduled to be announced there. still ahead, new photos of trayvon martin taken much closer to the day that he died. we'll speak to the man who got the photos directly from the family. and for the person who thought he found an easy target in a carjacking, what a big mistake. that target was a korean war vet. you know what? he wasn't having any of it. you'll find out all about this. you're watching "early start." ♪ when your chain of supply goes from here to shanghai, that's logistics. ♪ ♪ chips from here, boards from there track it all through the air, that's logistics. ♪ ♪ clearing customs like that hurry up no time flat that's logistics. ♪ ♪ all new technology ups brings to me, that's logistics. ♪ ah, welcome to hotels.com. i get it...guys weekend. yeah! if you're looking for a place to get together, you came to the right place. because here at hotels.com, we're only about hotels. yeah! yeah! noooo. yeah! finding you the perfect place is all we do. welcome to hotels.com welcome back to "early start." good morning to you, miami. 73 degrees right now. 83 later today. could you send that warmth our way, please? nice to have you with us this morning. pakt pictures of trayvon m enand george zimmerman have arguably shaped our per acceptings of them. police surveillance video obtained by abc news shows zimmerman being brought in in handcuffs on the night the 17-year-old was shot and killed. zimmerman looks a lot different than he did in this mug shot on the left from 2005 that was all over the media for weeks. a smiling zimmerman dressed in a suit was released just days ago. it was obtained by the "orlando sentinel." on the left, one of the first images to surface of trayvon martin. on the right, trayvon is shown closer to his age of 17. that is when he died. earlier this week, michael scolnik was given family photos to publish in globalgrind.com. he's editor in chief of the news and entertainment website. he's sharing those photos with us today. thank you for being with us and sharing the photos. trayvon's mother gave these photos to you. how did you get involved with this family? >> we've been covering this case for four weeks now, from every angle we possibly could. i wrote a blog last week about the case that spread on the internet. we had been in contact with the family, the family's attorneys and they asked me to come to florida on monday, which i did. i had the great chance to enspd the day with the mother, father and the family. it was a remarkable experience for me. on tuesday they asked me to publish the photos. >> that one in particular of trayvon on a horse, did you choose these photos or did she choose them. >> she chose them. she sent us three photos and we published the photos. >> the one on the horse, boy, he doesn't look happy there. >> this was nine days before he was killed. any teenager at his mother's birthday party isn't too happy and then to put him on a horse. >> as we see trayvon's parents in the media, they're hyperfocus on solving this crime and we don't know much about them or their personalities otherwise. what have you encountered with them? >> they're really funny family. this is a very, very tough time for them. my heart, i think all of our hearts are pouring out with love for them. trayvon was a very funny guy, they tell me. the mother is a very funny woman. during this time we don't see that. behind closed doors they're incredibly close and loving. they're incredibly sort of poised to find justice for their son. but at the same time they're still a family and have a nice time with each other. they're beautiful people. >> you were a filmmaker for over ten years. you know the power that images can have. and we're taking a look at this new video that was just released of zimmerman. >> yes. >> from your vantage point, a filmmaker, your eyes, what do you see when you take a look at that video? >> it's interesting. details. as a filmmaker you look at details. the first thing i looked at was why don it the the police officers have gloves on? if george zimmerman was bleeing or if there was blood, they touch him as well in the video, where are the gloves? i think proper police procedure is to wear gloves if the suspect is bleeding. in this case you don't see any glove on any of the police officers. >> any other inconsistencies your eye picks up? >> it's hard for me to say whether he was bleeding from the nose, whether there's cuts on the back of his head. i don't know how long this video was taken after the incident occurred. i would have been curious to know, why don't the police officers have gloves on. >> the images she released, that she gave to you to release to the public and the ones of zimmerman, how do you think that has affected our perception in this entire case? powerful, right? >> very powerful. i think for mr. zimmerman it was a disadvantage, the first image he had shown of him was a mug shot. for trayvon, to see him as a young child, the football picture, he was 9 years old when that picture was taken. he was a child. even the pictures they gave us yesterday, he's a child. a tall child but he's a child. he has a reese's pieces t-shirt on. he's a kid. >> we appreciate you being here. >> thank you for having me. >> ashleigh, back to you. time to check stories making news this morning with christine romans. a colorado family's terrifying escape from the grips of a deadly wildfire. their 13-year-old daughter capturing the drive through billowing orange smoke and burning trees, pretty scary stuff. they're all safe and sound. they're coming up, doug gulik, kimberly olson and their kids will join us and talk about their escape. let me tell you about earl scruggs. he's died at 88 years old. his son confirmed he died but cannot say how. three-finger banjo style changed country music back in the day. one fan, comedian steve martin tweeted the most important banjo player that ever lived has passed on. an 81-year-old korean war veteran stopped a carjacker from taking off with his car and his wife. he allegedly held a knife to the woman's throat. the husband immediately sprang into action. >> i didn't see what he had under those tattoos. i just grabbed for his wrist. >> i could have been dead. >> somebody has to cook for me. >> that's love. the carjacker rather eventually gave up and ran off. he was caught a short time later. the couple thankfully was not hurt. wow. >> 81? >> 81. >> love that story. >> rocking out. >> yes. do not mess with my wife. >> that is correct. >> don't mess with a u.s. vet also. right? >> that's fantastic. >> usa! usa! >> 45 minutes past 5:00. thank you, christine. still to come, a woman kind of shocks herself. inadvertently bringing this on board a plane in her bag? what does she do about it? instead of handing it over to the flight crew she starts photographing it. what was that about? why did it go viral in i'm a little skeptical there. and slobbery, welcome back for one u.s. soldier. you don't want to miss this, folks. this is just the tip of the ice brurg. you're watching "early start." >> that's great. named a 2012 iihs top safety pick. not that we'd ever brag about it. turn right. come on, nine. turn left. hit the brakes. huh? how'd that get there? [ male announcer ] we can't hide how proud we are to have nine top safety picks like the passat and jetta. so we're celebrating with our "safety in numbers" event. that's the power of german engineering. right now lease the 2012 jetta for $159 a month. this reduced sodium soup says it may help lower cholesterol, how does it work? you just have to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet. step 1. eat the soup. all those veggies and beans, that's what may help lower your cholesterol and -- well that's easy [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. will be giving away passafree copies that's what may help lower your cholesterol and -- well that's easy of the alcoholism & addiction cure. to get yours, go to ssagesmalibubook.com. we like to keep you in the pop culture loop by taking a look at the trending stuff on the interwebs. this is kind of weird. a woman says she inadvertently slipped a pocket knife past airport security. >> it looks like a switchblade it's so huge. >> take a look at your screen. it's circled on the bottom of her bag. she says she saw it and then photographed it because she was very worried. she's doing this while on board the plane, noticing -- this didn't get picked up by anybody, the x-rays, the hand scan, the hand search. then she went into the bathroom, the airplane bathroom and decided to photograph it there, too. she says it was not hidden very well in her bag. she, again, says she didn't know it was in there. she's not revealing where she flew to or from. social media is going bananas over this. the big question would be this, you think you did this by mistake and you don't go, ding, ma'am, i have a problem, could you take this for me? instead you go to the bathroom and start taking pictures of it? >> or is this real? that's where i'm skeptical. >> big deal on the web, though. here's something super happy for you. this little guy is so happy to see his best friend again. >> oh, look at that. >> you could watch this all day. the video is of an ecstatic dog welcoming home a u.s. soldier. he goes nuts. this is just the beginning. >> chuck the boxer. he was so thrilled to see his owner, he cannot contain it. he was coming home to his wife and dog in germany after eight months in afghanistan. watch again. he's like you're not going anywhere. i am so happy to see you. touching video uploaded less than a week ago. it already has more than 1.3 million views. don't you wish you were greeted like that every day when you came home, folks. >> that is so spectacular. >> somebody who loves you that much. >> it makes you wonder, what does chuck know? does he know how lucky he is? and welcome home. >> eight months he had been gone. >> welcome home. thank you for your service and god bless you. it may have been scary for the passengers aboard the jetblue flight. that wasn't stopping the late-night comedians. they founded this to be comedy gold. jetblue has a new slogan, "now with nuts on every flight." >> how scary is this story? jetblue flight from new york to las vegas was forced to make an emergency landing in texas after the pilot flipped out on the plane. he was screaming, ranting the plane was going to blow up. the passengers had to subdue him, the pilot. how bad is airline travel when you have to start putting pilots on the do not fly list. what is that? one passenger said it was so crazy it was like a movie. when jetblue heard that, they charged the guy with a $5 entertainment fee. >> the pilot went running down the aisle and the passengers subdued him. a guy knocked him out cold. you know what he used? a dinner roll. this is good thinking for the future. hard love. hard love. if you don't have a dinner roll, also use a dessert square. >> oh, dave taking a little license with the facts there. >> i'm so glad it ended positively that we can have these moments, right. >> thank god for that. talking about things that ended up positively, a family is driving through hell. it almost looks like they're braving through hell, it almost looks literal. a mom, a dad, two cars and an escape you can only see to believe. >> oh, my gosh! >> it's okay. it is the first time that we are seeing what the shooter, george zimmerman looked like immediately after the killing of trayvon martin. he said martin smashed his head on the ground. so are there wounds? you're watching "early start." that's why there's new glucerna hunger smart shakes. they have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly to help minimize blood sugar spikes. 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[ male announcer ] yes, you could business pro. yes, you could. go national. go like a pro. it is just before -- just a hair before 6:00 a.m. on the east coast. welcome back to "early start," everyone, i'm ashleigh banfield. >> and i'm zoraida sambolin. we are bringing you the news from "a" to "z." it's just about 6:00 a.m. here in the east. let's get started. new surveillance video, raising new questions about the death of trayvon martin. it shows george zimmerman on the left in handcuffs at a police station just hours after the shooting. what it doesn't show has renewed calls for zimmerman's arrest. george's father is speaking publicly as well for the very first time. >> they're just making up things. that are not true true about ge. how he is being portrayed is just an absolute lie. >> robert zimmerman insists that his son acted in self defense. >> and he talked about taking a leap of faith. federal charges now filed against a jetblue pilot who had a midair meltdown. the captain's mental health coming into question now and whether he should have been at the controls in the first place. >> where's mom? what are you stopping for? >> there it is, right there. >> oh, my gosh! >> it's okay. we're out, we're out. >> never good when you hear a child's voice like that, a family's brush with death driving through flames to escape a wildfire in colorado. the drama all captured on a cell phone video. lucky they're with us. >> yes. >> they'll be with us at 6:40 am eastern time. workers on strike in spain since the stroke of midnight. they're challenging the new government and its austerity measures. nearly 5,000 demonstrators have been detained by police, the protests coming one day before billions more and painful cuts are scheduled to be announced. it's one minute past 6:00 on the east coast. there are new ones overnight in the trayvon martin case. this video, just released, obtained by abc, of george zimmerman hours after he fatally shot 17-year-old trayvon martin. the tape shows zimmerman being led in handcuffs to be questioned to the police station. appears to be moving all right, no difficulty. it is hard to see any outward signs of physical injury that zimmerman claims to have suffered in which he says with his a life and death struggle with trayvon martin. in the meantime, trayvon martin's father's girlfriend said he was afraid. >> he was walking fast. when he says this man behind him again. he come and say this look like and then trayvon come and said the man was still behind him and then i come and say run! >> live in sanford, florida. martin, obviously every little detail is just gobbled up in this story because it is about the devil in the details when it comes down to the law. what is george zimmerman's father shedding in terms of light on this story? >> well, you're absolutely right, ashleigh. especially with this sort of desert of information coming from the official investigation, any detail that comes out through some other means is just riveting. that is certainly the case with what you hear from robert zimmerman, the father of george zimmerman. he spoke out on public television last night. it's interesting he did not want to be shown. he was in silhouette, mainly because he says he fears for his own safety. his son's life was absolutely in jeopardy. he says that trayvon martin was the aggressor here. listen. >> trayvon martin walked up to him, asked him, do you have a [ bleep ] problem? george said, no, i don't have a problem. and started to reach for his cell phone. at that point, he was punched in the nose. his nose was broken and he was knocked to the concrete. trayvon martin got on top of him and just started beating him in the face, in his nose, hitting his head on the concrete. >> reporter: all right. let's move the narrative forward a little more. robert zimmerman picking up moments later. >> after nearly a minute of being beaten, george is trying to get his head off the concrete, trying to move, with trayvon on him, into the grass. in doing so, his firearm was shown. trayvon martin said something to the effect of you're going to die now or you're going to die tonight, something to that effect. he continued to beat george. and at some point george pulled his pistol and did what he did. >> reporter: two things. robert zimmerman was not there. he is recounting what we think is what george zimmerman has told him. we can't be certain of that. he didn't explain. the other thing there is that he points ut that george zimmerman apparently made a conscious decision to shoot trayvon martin. there had been other story lines that suggested maybe a fight over the gun and the gun had gone off that way. this appears to counter that saying, no, it was a direct decision by george zimmerman to shoot trayvon martin. >> martin savidge, thank you very much. lou palumbo, former police investigator, and now a pi. talking about this new george zimmerman video, police video when he's brought into the sanford police department and what kind of details we can glean from it, from a police officer perspective. the jetblue pilot is now facing federal charges for interfering with his own crew. apparent mental breakdown moments after they took off from jfk new york. clayton osbon scolded air traffic controllers for making too much noise then turned off all the radios, started preaching about how things don't matter. and said we're not going to vegas and yelled, quote, we need to take a leap of faith. then passengers grabbed him, pinned him down. as the first officer guided the plane to a safe, but very scary emergency landing in texas. cnn's aviation correspondent, lizzie o'leary, has new details. what are we gleaning from this information from the cockpit? >> a much fuller picture, zoraida, of what was going on. we got these details as part of the charges that were levied against this pilot, clayton osbon, flew for jetblue for about a dozen years. you get a picture of exactly what was going on there. talked about, at a certain point, his first officer started to notice things were a little bit off. i want to walk you through some of the stuff that was in this federal affidavit. he did show up late. you talked about yelling, air traffic control, turning off the radio inside the cockpit, dimming some of his monitors and then in the first officer's words, starting to give a sermon. and then, at this point, the first officer -- you might think of him as a co-pilot, colloquialily. osbon started talking about needing to take a leap of faith and then the real thing that set up real red flags was we're not go i going to vegas, the plane's original destination. about three and a half hours in, he wanted to get the pilot out of the cockpit into the la lavatory. the captain left the cockpit and another pilot who was along for the ride essentially stepped in there. they locked him out. he began banging on the lavatory door. he walked back to the back of the plane, turned around and ran forward again. at this point, certainly it's clear from passengers we've talked to, the flight attendants and passengers were already aware that something major was going on here. he began banging on the cockpit door and the passengers, prompted by the flight attendants and by that co-pilot over the p.a. system, helped to subdue him, bring him to the ground. they sat on him essentially for 15 minutes until the plane landed safely. >> a couple of weeks ago we had that flight attendant that kind of lost her mind while she was on a flight as well whachlt kind of medical screening do they go through? is it mental health screening as well? and i'm talking about the pilots here. i don't know that flight attendants go through the same thing. >> it is different for pilots than flight attendants. they are the most observed people doing their job on the planet. the way it works is that every pilot gets an evaluation, medical evaluation once a year or twice a year if they're over 40, as osbon was, but it's by a gp, general practitioner, who is qualified to do that. pilots are supposed to self report that and also if the gp has any concerns, they're supposed to talk about that. we should note that there's also a culture of sort of nervousness about reporting mental health. a pilot with 30 years of experience told cnn people are nervous about talking about that. they're worried about losing their faa certification. >> good gracious. lizzie o'leary, thanks for that. >> we'll talk to the president of the association of flight attendants. has there been too many cases recently and what else can be done if crew members are not mentally fit to fly. >> there's a stigma, but at the end of the day it's about safety, right? >> the stigma is interesting. i was listening to a couple of former veteran pilots talking about this and it could mean you're grounded. you work your whole career to achieve this status and there is that potential that if you bring up the fact that you're bipolar, on medication, it could affect your job. but the pilots are saying this is so rare. >> yes. >> coming up on "early start" spike lee, love him. he is eating crow for retweeting something. he is apologizing for it. it was an address. it was an address named zimmerman. it was not the right zimmerman and these zimmermans had to flee their home because of it. republicans rallying around mitt romney. he has two big endorsements. can he go toe to toe with president obama? new numbers are out there that we'll share with you. you're watching "early start." your finances can't manage themselves. but that doesn't mean they won't try. bring all your finances together with the help of the one person who can. a certified financial planner professional. cfp. let's make a plan. two of the most important are energy security and economic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project in canada, we'll be able to produce these oil sands with the same emissions as many other oils and that's a huge breakthrough. that's good for our country's energy security and our economy. pandora rocks the big board. [ male announcer ] engine light on? come to meineke now for a free code scan read and you'll say...my money. my choice. my meineke. got some new video this morning of george zimmerman in handcuffs at the police station. this is from the night that trayvon martin was killed. it is surveillance video from the sanford police department. it was obtained by abc news. in it, you can see george zimmerman getting out of the police cruiser and eventually being taken into the building. there are details you need to keep an eye on. first, we want to show you a mug shot. there's a big difference in how george zimmerman looked in this mug shot from back in 2005. in the video, he certainly looks different. he's much thinner. seems to be in shape. he's also wearing the red jacket we've heard a fair bit about. of course, there's a lot of attention being paid to his physical condition. can't see any blood. can't see any major bruises or injuries. can't see any bandages. trayvon's mother reacted to this video last night on piers morgan. >> this video is the icing on the cake. this is not the first part of evidence they have had. they have had the 911 tapes and they also had witnesses. this is in addition to what the sanford police department already has. this video is clear evidence that there is some problem with this case and that he needs to be arrested. >> lou palumbo is a former investigator with the nassau county police department, and now is with the elite surveillance and protection agency. when you look at that video with all of your background as police officer, what do you see? >> i don't see anything consistent with injuries that he eluded do. if you look at the video, and i've looked at it, reviewed it a number of times. i don't see anything consistent with a broken nose. clearly, if he had one, they should have transported him to a hospital. as far as abrasions or con contusions on his head, again, there's nothing significant there. >> is it close enough for us to make that determination? >> absolutely. you can tell when someone has their nose broken. i've seen it quite a few times. >> we have a still shot of this. we've stopped the video in two places where you can see his face and the back of his head. this is the shot where you can see as well as you can the front view of george zimmerman. you don't see any blood. there's the shot of the back of his head. there's been a lot of attention being paid to where he said his head was slammed against the concrete. it's not close-up. i'm not a doctor. i'm not there. you're a police officer and you've been in those circumstances before. and those police officers are right next to him. is it possible that those injuries do exist, even though they're not evident to us in the video? >> perhaps in a minuscule degree. that's part of what i consider to be zimmerman's cover-up. i don't want to trivialize this tape or the information passed along, but the simple dynamic is that this individual had no authority to approach this young man in any capacity. he wasn't a sworn law enforcement agent. he didn't have credentials that would give him some type of validity. you have to understand where this little boy comes from. he probably fights morning, noon and night. that's part of his existence. a guy comes up to him out of the blue -- or as we now know through phone conversations with his girlfriend, is following him. we have a timeline created by a 911 call where the dispatcher trained, under the supervision of law enforcement -- >> says we don't need you to do that. >> asks him to stand down. >> we don't need you to do that. zimmerman's dad or at least his friend says zimmerman is heard to say okay. there is discrepancy as to what happened after that. you have to match up a lot of time lines and accounts to figure that one out. a police officer is looking over george zimmerman's clothing and sort of touching the front of his red jacket, touching his arm. and he gets around toward the back where, of course, we had heard there was blood and grass stains. watch him right there as he touches it. he wipes something off on his pants. take a look. you can see him wiping his hands there. significant? >> not really. obviously, the police officer, the same way i may have when i'm in law enforcement, encountered a substance he wasn't comfortable with and was look ing to -- how would you say -- remove something from his hands. it's interesting that he didn't have rubber gloves on, especially in today's environment. those are issued to us. >> robert zimmerman, george zimmerman's father, who has now emerged on tape, defending his son's actions. he said something very specific about this encounter. he defends his son saying when his son was on the ground and moving about underneath, as he claims, underneath trayvon, the gun he had on his person became visible, at which point he said trayvon had this reaction. have a listen. >> trayvon martin said something to the effect of you're going to die now, or you're going to die tonight, something to that effect. >> so, you're saying that trayvon martin verbally threatened his life? >> yes. >> if you can hear the screaming, why can't you hear trayvon martin saying -- using those verbal threats? >> i don't know. i don't know at what point he said that. >> so, lou, if george zimmerman said these things to the police officers who attended the scene, would that not fall under their purview of believing he was in defense of his life, if he had heard those verbal threats, you're going to die tonight? >> not necessarily. you know, quite frankly, i think what we have here is zimmerman trying to figure out how he's going to cover this thing up, because he precipitated this problem with this young man and something that he didn't anticipate was going to happen actually happened. there's a lot of issues here. including him carrying a weapon in this capacity, being a neighborhood watch person. the laws in the state of florida are rather interesting laws and i deal with them myself because of my business. if you're given a permit to carry a concealed weapon in the state of florida, for example, that doesn't necessarily entitle you to carry it in any type of work capacity or environment. >> certainly not as a neighborhood watch captain? >> exactly. so who authorized you or made you believe you could encounter this young man on any level? secondly, who told you that you could carry a weapon if they did it will you that you could participate in a neighborhood watch? i know they wouldn't. we have auxiliary police in nassau county, suffolk county in uniform and they're forbidden to carry weapons. >> it's gobbled up, any little detail. we appreciate you coming in with your expertise and lending that to us. thank you. >> my pleasure. >> interesting conversation. thank you. we'll switch gears here. mega millions madness. what would you do with a half a billion dollars? i asked on facebook this morning. some really interesting ideas you all have. you're watching "early start." what's this? [ male announcer ] quaker oatmeal squares have 46 grams of whole grains... mmmm. ...and a touch of sweetness. you'll be delighted to discover how good they taste. so i used my citi thank you card to pick up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? we talked about getting a diamond. but with all the thank you points i've been earning... ♪ ...i flew us to the rock i really had in mind. ♪ [ male announcer ] the citi thank you card. earn points you can use for travel on any airline, with no blackout dates. such a great conversation this morning. got money? >> 24 minutes past 6:00 am. if you're just waking up, the ching ching was going on in the mega millions jackpot and that lottery is now offering winnings of half a billion dollars. it was just slightly shy of half a billion before you went to bed. >> you could buy company with his that, you could by countries. >> what are our chances of winning this? go for it. and then i want to know what you would do if you win. >> ladies, we've got no chance. if you have high-interest credit card debt, you've got no business running out and buying these tickets. now that i've been responsible and practice what i preach here, i'm going to tell you the odds are 176 million to one. think about it for a minute. a lot of other things are going to happen to you before that happens. now let's talk about what to do with the money, shall we? >> yes. >> when you win it, i suggest you take the lump sum. i'm assuming you're good with money. people who aren't good with money tend to run through this money in five to ten years. we're going to take the lump sum, keep a low profile. we're not going to go out and buy a massachusetzeratti or sho friends and family with gifts. we're going to grow the money not just spend it. what happens when people get a settlement, any kind of money, even inheritances. people get a little money or a lot of money and they think about how they're going to spend it, not how they're going to preserve it and grow it. that's how rich people think differently than the rest of it. rich people think of how to make more with their money, not spend their money. >> you do know a lot about money. is there a frivolous thing that you would buy? >> you know what? i would boy a really nice car. that's what i would probably do. i was thinking about a yacht. i don't think i would buy a yacht. you're flushing money down the toilet when you own a yacht every minute you own it. you can buy the yacht. i'll buy the nice car. what are you going to buy? >> new hours at cnn. i think that would be worth it. >> three little kids that got to go to college. first thing i'm going to do is put it away for college. >> that's great. >> fascinating conversation about this, what you would do at the money that would include me. >> i'm going to invite you to join me, per se, $300 a head for lunch. >> and she buys. >> really. 27 minutes past 6:00. new information on a pilot's apparent mental breakdown in the sky. you've heard about this. what can be done to see whether crew members are mentally fit to fly? we'll ask the international president of the flight attendant's association for her perspective. hi. i'm comedian ventriloquist jeff dunnham. i'm on the road with my characters. >> he's trying to kill us. >> making the big jaunts across the country, just forsake of schedule, we get a private plane now. walter, there are a few creature comforts on the bus, aren't there? >> yeah. let's see. you have to have your coffee machine. he likes to grind his own beans. >> what's the toy i like to have? >> radio controlled helicopters. i don't get that. >> the toy helicopters on the road and fly them around in these big arenas. and the big ones, too. >> oh, yeah. this idiot flies in real hell kopters that he built himself. he's a moron. >> this is roadie, my giant doberman pincher. i bring her on stage and she does one trick. makes her a total tax deduction. that's it for me and my fellows. we'll see you on the road some time. >> wait. all i get is the closing? >> that's it. >> you jerk. what the world wants to know and share is here. demand media expands on the big board. metamucil uses super hard working psyllium fiber, which gels to remove unsexy waste and reduce cholesterol. taking psyllium fiber won't make you a model but you should feel a little more super. metamucil. down with cholesterol. it is 31 minutes past the hour. welcome back to "early start." i'm zoraida sam bolin. >> good morning. i'm ashleigh banfield. we begin with new police video. it was obtained by abc news and it shows george zimmerman getting out of the cruiser in handcuffs the night that trayvon martin was killed. he claims that he shot martin after the teenager attacked him. the video shows no obvious signs of physical injuries. trayvon's mother says, quote, it is icing on the cake and she wants zimmerman arrested. director spike lee is apologizing to a florida couple after he retweeted their address. he thought it belonged to george zimmerman. the couple had to go to a hotel to get away from all the threats and the media. david and elaine mcclain, you're looking at them there. deadly wildfire caught on tape, like a drive through hell. their 13-year-old child captured the drive through billowing smoke and burning trees. very frightening stuff. they are all safe and sound, thank god. just a few moments, the family with their three children are going to join us live to talk about that great escape. >> lots of smoke there. republican front-runner mitt romney picks up two more endorsements. marco rubio announced his endorsement. george h.w. bush announces his endorsement later on today in hugh houston. rupt mert murdoch is taking steps to create a -- we already have one, espn. news corp. could launch a national sports network later this year. the jetblue pilot that had to be wrestled down midair is now facing charges for interfering with his own crew. we're hearing new details about his midair meltdown as well. he scolded air traffic controllers for making too much noise just moments after the flight took off from jfk in new york, then turned off all the radios and said we're not going to vegas and, quote, we need to take a leap of faith. he ran in, yelling about iraq, iran, and jesus and passengers grabbed him and pulled him down. the international president of the association of flight attendants and joins us now live from washington, d.c. thank you so much for being with us this morning. we know that you have a lot of experience dealing with unruly passengers. now we're throwing into the mix your co-workers, the crew. do you have training for situations like this? >> we do. flight attendants go through a rigorous initial training and we go through a mandatory recurrent training every year. and we are trained on how to deal with various threat levels, understanding that our goal as the first responders and last line of defense is to deescalate any situations like we had yesterday. >> does that include training to deal with a pilot losing it? >> it trains to deal with any kind of disruption. obviously, it's extremely rare to have an incident with the pilot, such as what happened yesterday. but, you know, we've looked beyond what someone looks like. we're looking for the behavior on how to assess the situation and deal with it in a fashion that makes sure that the plane can land safely. >> let's talk specifically about this flight. according to the affidavit filed with the complaint, the first officer was able to take charge of the situation in the cockpit and the cabin. here is the quote from the complaint. osb osbon started to try to open the door and they try ied to restra osbon. is there specific training as well for an incident like that? >> there's absolutely specific training. instinct kicks in as well. we're so well trained and a pilot flying a flight, they've got a series of checklists so that it's actual muscle memory on how to deal with an emergency. so in a case like this -- again, with the threat levels established, as you would know, after 9/11, the cockpit doors became secured. so, there are definitely checklists to make sure that door was not going to come open for the remainder of the flight. >> as we understand it, pilots undergo a medical assessment every year. what about a mental health assessment? is that something that's done on a yearly basis or every six months? >> no. you go through -- a pilot would go through a physical, but that's to make sure you don't have any risk of heart disease or that you wouldn't have a stroke so that when you make sure that you could be flying the plane healthy. >> what about a mental health assessment? >> no. >> not at all? what about when they're first hired? >> when you're hired and you work as a crew member, there's ongoing evaluation. you would be assessing your personality, your behavior, when you're interviewed, going through an initial training and when you're out flying with your peers, but no. >> do you think it's going to change now? >> no, i don't think it's going to change. what i do hope happens is that this highlights the need to have valuable employee assistance programs, such as we have with the association of flight att d attendants where your support network to make sure that if someone is in need they can get help or treatment. many, many americans suffer from different kinds of mental disabilities and need help and treatment. >> i want you to listen to what one passenger said on wolf blitzer last night. i want to talk to you after it. >> he started yelling things like, they got us in iraq, iran, afghanistan. they're going to take us down. we need to throttle down, take the plane down. then he suggested that we all say the lord's prayer. and i think certainly, for me, that was all i needed to hear. i think the other guys probably felt the same way, because at that point we just wrestled him to the ground. and forcibly restrained him. >> veda, as a flight attendant, is it your expectation that passengers will actually step up and help? >> that has been proven to be the experience, yes. and from a perspective of a flight attendant, we are always paying attention, being situationally aware and looking for those that could help in an emergency. even before i board an airplane, i'm looking around the boarding area. when we're on the plane, looking for those that could be available to help, military, fellow crew members. >> and what about air marshals, do you identify where they're sitting if they are, in fact, on your flight? >> we would typically know if there were air marshals on our flight. >> thank you for sharing your experience with us today. international association of flight attendants. thank you for your time. 38 minutes past 6:00 on the east coast. up next, an escape from hell. take a look. >> daddy, where's mom? what's she stopping for? >> a family's terrifying escape from a wildfire and all of it caught on the cell phone camera. and the little one was actually rolling. we'll talk to not only that youngster, but the whole family live in just a moment. good morning, denver. beautiful tower cam shot of your early morning dark skies. it's 55 degrees where you are right now, warming up to a very pleasant 69 degrees later on today. speaking of temperatures, boy, have we got something hot and dramatic. some video out of denver. a family barely escaping with their lives on monday from a deadly wildfire that has already claimed two people's lives, and the whole thing captured on a cell phone video. take a look. >> daddy! >> we'll make it. we're going to be fine. >> daddy, where's mom? what's she stopping for? >> it's down there. it's down that hill. [ bleep ] [ bleep ]. >> whoa! >> there it is. right here. right here. >> oh, my gosh. >> it's okay. we're out. we're out. we're out. >> boy, is it good to hear we're out, we're out, we're out. joining me now is the family, doug, kim and their three kids, caleb. i'm glad to see you're all safe and sound. doug, that must have been unbelievable. can you take me back for a moment and tell me what was go ing through your mind as you were driving through, what looked to us, like hell? >> i mean, we -- we basically came -- we loaded up the car. the last thing i saw was, you know, this large flame shoot up. we realized we had to go right then. we turned that corner and went from daylight into pure darkness. and the reason my wife -- my wife was in the jeep in front of us. the reason she stopped, she thought the road might not be passable. and then our neighbor passed her and he knew that there was only about half a mile of that to drive through. he went in front of us and we got out. it was terrifying, obviously. >> as i was looking at this, doug, i was thinking -- at first it didn't look like there was going to be a way out. was there at any point in that drive in that video we're seeing where you thought i don't think we're going to make it? >> oh, absolutely. absolutely. i mean, yeah, my wife was thinking -- we could have turned around and gone back down, but it's a dead end. and then it would be the hope that the fire would blow through. we knew that we were going to have to drive through that to get down the hill. basically our neighbor, who had just come through and knew it was a short spell we would have to drive through is the reason we decided to continue. obviously, you can tell how scary it was. >> no kidding. kim, i want to ask you really quickly. we can hear -- i think it's roanna bell's voice, where's mom? where's mom? i got goosebumps when i saw it and heard it. you were in the car in the front and i think she said why is she stopping? why were you stopping? >> yeah. two reasons. first was i needed lights, it was so dark. and i was fumbling for the lights and trying to get myself together. i think we were all in such a state that it was all happening very fast. i had to put on the brake to figure out that i could get my hand to the lights and turn those on. and i was also considering that we might not make it through and maybe we needed to turn around, like my husband said. and my dad and my brother are both firefighters and i know that one of the dangers is if the road becomes blocked with trees that are downed and i was concerned that we would just get trapped inside. so, the neighbor that passed us, we didn't know that that neighbor knew the way out, but he was flying and so we just -- we went for it. >> i want to ask caleb, you're 13. as i understand it, you are the photographer here. did your dad throw you the cell phone and just say roll? what made you decide to take those pictures and then what kept you taking them? did you want to toss it down and run for your life at any point? >> yeah, totally, i did. but i just took the -- yeah, you're right. i took the video because he threw me the phone and i just did my best to capture the whole experience. >> i bet you're glad to be with your family, safe and sound, today. i don't know the condition of your home or do you know at this point whether your home has survived this blaze? >> on tuesday morning, there was an aerial shot of a roofline and a neighbor's house that's also in our meadow. and those were standing then. the word yesterday was all the firefighters that have come in, there are two firefighters that are camped out on our driveway, two on another neighbor's driveway. so, they're sort of flanking the back side of the fire where we were and putting out spot fires at this point, because there's still a lot of flare up. yesterday there was more activity just to the east of us, directly east. so, we're not out of -- >> not out of the woods yet? >> not out of it at all at this point. still hoping for the best. >> well, we're out. >> that's exactly what i was going to say. easy for me to say this, but your most prized possessions are right there on the screen and you guys are all touching, which is the best part of this story when you see that video, it's h harrowing. thank you for coming in to talk with us this morning. >> thank you. >> be very well. >> you see the little girl there, yawning. it's an awfully early morning for them. thank you very much, ashleigh. >> they're precious. >> they are precious. soledad o'brien joins us with a look of what's ahead on "starting point." >> it's an early morning for all of us, isn't it? we'll talk to the two unlikely victims in trayvon martin's shooting death. a tweet was sent out with an address of where george zimmerman lives and then spike lee retweeted it to his millions of viewers. the problem is that it wasn't george zimmerman's home. and the couple had to leave their home. 13 million american kids reported will be bullied this year. lee hersh, we'll talk about this documentary that follows real-life victims along with the emotional and physical voofd violence they endure. it's an absolutely heartbreaking movie. we'll chat with him about why his film is so paurful. it's being released without a rating. how tiger woods is going to do. we'll talk to his former coach, hank haney, with tiger 110 days of the year, observing him in every circumstance, tournaments, practice range. his new book reveals a lot about tiger and some people say it's an absolute betrayal. we'll talk about that when "starting point" comes on at the top of the hour. we'll see you then. yeah, do you have anything for a headache... like excedrin, ohhh, bayer aspirin... ohh, no no no. i'm not having a heart attack, it's my head. no, bayer advanced aspirin, this is made for pain. 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[ kyle ] it's like we're connected. no we're not. yeah, we are. no...we're not. ♪ the allstate value plan. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate. 53 minutes past the hour. time to check the stories making news this morning. >> u.s. military says it has never had any access to the scene where army staff sergeant robert bales allegedly gunned down up to 17 afghan civilians and that could hinder the military's prosecution of bales, according to a u.s. official who tells cnn bales returned to his base -- he's confirming this now, returned to his base and told his roommate he had been out killing afghan civilians. jetblue pilot who had a midair meltdown, charges have been filed. cl clayton osbon was talking about taking a leap of faith before passengers were forced to grab him and hold him down. workers in spain are on strike. they're upset over the new conservative government and its austerity measures in that country. state tv in spain says nearly 5,000 demonstrators have been detained by police. when guard dogs just aren't enough. a farmer in houston, texas, is trying something different to protect his property -- bees. he hired a be. wrangler who brought in hives to keep thieves from poaching tractors and other farming equipment. >> you can just dress for that, can't you? >> you're not expecting it. >> now it's been on the news. >> kind of blew that guy's cover, didn't we? >> coming up on "early start," republicans need to be really choosing their guy. former president and a possible running mate throwing their hat behind this man, mitt romney. what does it mean for the others? you're watching "early start." 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[ male announcer ] the citi simplicity card. no late fees. no penalty rate. no worries. critical endorsements for mitt romney from a former president and a potential running mate. >> certainly the list more than 20. >> yes. >> word of the day. >> yes. >> joe john sincere live in washington. i'm pretty sure it's more than 20. joe johns? >> yeah, yeah. but, you know what? look, this is an endorsement that was expected. more symbolic than anything. endorsement is in houston, pretty much glorified photo-op. it's not like it's a secret. not clear also how much endorsements are helping this cycle. george h.w. bush has sent signals he supports romney for a long time, all the way back to december. he said he thinks president -- he thinks romney's the guy. what does all of this really me mean? another sign the republican establishment is getting behind mitt romney as the front r-runn. the truth is, though, that the republican establishment is romney's strong suit anyway. he has gotten a ton of endorsements from him this election cycle, frankly didn't save him from a bruising battle in the primaries. what he needs, frankly, is more of the conservative set, evangelicals. >> joe johns in washington live for us this morning. and that would be "early start", the news from a to z. i'm ashleigh banfield. >> and i'm zoraida sambolin. "starting point" with soledad o'brien starts right now. what george zimmerman looked like immediately after killing trayvon martin. he said martin smashed his head on the ground. we'll take a look and see if that videotape matches the zripg. a jetblue captain is facing federal charges for his midair meltdown. he was telling passengers it was time to take a leap of faith. which in a pilot is a very, very