About. Sometimes youll have freemoving traffic and then youll hit these mystery backups for no apparent reason. Then traffic is clear and you hit another one of those. Projections say its only going to get worse, its going to be all backup the next few years but there is a plan here that would seek to alleviate that. It seems like right now the immediate answer lies beyond the beltway. Its a classic i66 scene, a backup that makes you late and leaves you without much choice. Miles of migraineinducing traffic. But unfortunately i think its an every day occurrence up here. Reporter but help could be on the way. Planners want to make major changes to the interstate between the beltway and haymaet. Its really as simple as that. Reporter why there . Why outside the beltway . We do know that a lot of motorists get there and either have to divert or they have to funnel into that bottleneck that gets into going into our nations capital. Reporter the key they say will be choice, making it an intermogul stretch with room for buses and tolltype lanes. While the focus is beyond the beltway, the benefits could be farreaching and prudently quick. We found working inside the beltway to be very difficult. I think we need to move the project forward and this is the quickest way to get relief. Reporter planners are also looking at a Publicprivate Partnership to manage the alternative lanes like whats been done with the express lanes on 495. The project will soon enter Environmental Impact phase and then public comments. Its expected to cost between 2 and 3 billion. And if all goes according to plan and schedule, construction could begin in 2017. Now, weve heard from some of the elected officials in the jurisdictions affected by this and some of the questions they have about whether this can be done without expanding on either side of the roadway. In other words, will private property have to be given up to make these changes. Those are questions that will be answered in the ensuing months. If you have questions, go to our website and find a link that will take you to a vdot website that will let you follow this project as it goes along. Live in fairfax, derrick ward, news4. Thank you, derrick. Well in, about a half hour d. C. Mayor vincent gray will hold a News Conference about d. C. s gun laws. Hell respond to congressman Thomas Matthews amendment that would defund the measures. The amendment was passed in the house as part of a d. C. Spending bill. Right now in the district handguns have to be registered every three years and owners have to be fingerprinted and complete a safety course. The amendment would do away with all of those requirements. Senate approval is still needed but unlikely. New Marijuana Laws are now in effect in d. C. Theres a new defining line between getting a ticket versus getting arrested. Starting today if youre caught with an ounce of marijuana or less, d. C. Police can issue you a 25 ticket. Also no more possible prison time if youve got with marijuana paraphernalia such as bongs, pipes and cigarette paper. The odor of marijuana will no longer be reasonable cause for police to search you or your property. And were answering your questions about the Marijuana Law changes in d. C. Look for the ten things you need to know on the home page of n nbcwashington. Com. A record low temperature was recorded this morning at Dulles Airport, but things are warming up now. Storm team 4 meteorologist tom kierein joins us with his first forecast for midday. Tom . Yeah, barbara, wonderful day today. Social media is just filled this morning. All my followers are saying way to go, lets keep this going 365 days a year. It is absolutely perfect. Yeah, i talked about that record low at dulles. It did get down to 55 degrees and tied the record low for july 17th set back in 1976. So we had 2014 back down to 55 degrees there. That was certainly unusually chilly for midjuly, even at Dulles Airport. Theres the sky over washington now, and you can see the visibility is excellent. The haze and thick humidity we normally have this time of year, its gone. 78 at Reagan National. The dew point down to 56. Whenever that dew point is in the 50s, that is comfortably dry, and we have a very light westerly breeze now. It just is a terrific day. Temperatures elsewhere right around the bay Beautiful Day there, its in the mid and upper 70s. Across Northern Virginia in the mid70s. Shenandoah valley just low 70s there today. A look at how much longer this perfect weather will be lasting, thats coming up in just a couple of minutes. Thank you, tom. A brief hazmat scare in Montgomery County this morning. Chopper 4 was over the scene of Holy Cross Hospital in silver spring. Fire officials tell us a foul odor was coming from a container in one of the buildings. That container was removed. No one was injured and the hospital continued operating normally. Crews are working to determine what caused a gas leak in one of the busiest parts of d. C. Police shut down the intersection of q and 20th streets, thats near an entrance to the Dupont Circle metro station. Washington gas spent hours investigating the smell of gas. Theres several homes and businesses in that area, but there were no evacuations called for. A judge set a new court date for a university of maryland lacrosse player accused of sexually assaulting a woman. Defense lawyers said this morning that they need more time to prepare their case for benjamin chisholm. A woman claims that she inappropriately touched her last month. She had fallen asleep during the concert on the lawn area when she was assaulted. Chisholm is out of jail on 10,000 bond. Hes due in court again august 14th. And new today would brandy still be here and why were we sold a vehicle which had not been repaired after someone knew there was a defect . Emotional family members this morning on capitol hill ahead of another hearing, looking at ignition switch problems in gm vehicles. And an early look at the race for president in 2016. Whos being called a republican front runner this morning how do you tell a little boy that his daddy could have been here for a 57cent part that gm chose not to install in our sons car . Powerful testimony this morning from those affected by the gm ignition switch recall. The stork family talked about their son, donnie, who died when his chevy cobalt crashed. 13 deaths have been linked to gms defective switch and hundreds more have been hurt. The ignition problem can disable power steering, brakes and air bags. An internal investigation found that gm knew about the ignition problem as early as 2001. News4s Richard Jordan has been watching the gm hearing on capitol hill and is at the live desk with more for us now. Reporter hi, barbara, good morning. Many of those family members are inside that hearing room right now. This is the Second Senate hearing. Right now testifying is rodney oneill, the ceo of delphi automotive, the supplier of that ignition switch. We also have mary barra, and one man whos going to face touch questioning here, which is gms general counselor, Michael Milliken. He said he wishes he knew about the problem earlier, that those will likely face some tough questioning from the chair of this committee, senator claire mccaskill. I do not understand how the general counsel for a Litigation Department that had this massive failure of responsibility, how he would be allowed to continue in that important leadership role in this company. So Michael Milliken will be facing some tough questions. Well be watching that hearing here from the live desk. And were following the developing situation in the middle east right now. The ceasefire between israel and gaza has expired. For five hours today both sides agreed to stop air strikes and rocket launches as a humanitarian effort. However, during the ceasefire, gaza reportedly fired three mortar shells and one rocket at israel. The last rocket fire came just before 10 00 a. M. When the ceasefire ended. Israel didnt return fire at gaza. During the ceasefire, people in bza crowded markets and to get supplies before the fighting picked up again. Meanwhile, the palestinian american teenager who claims he was beaten by Israeli Police is back in the u. S. 15yearold Tariq Abu Kadeer arrived at a Tampa Airport last night. The teenager was visiting family in jerusalem when he was attacked and detained earlier this month. Israeli police claim the 15yearold was arrested for throwing rocks during a protest for his cousin, who had been murdered. Tariq said the experience was the scariest thing that has ever happened to him. Im only 15 but i will never think about freedom in the same way as i did two months ago. I want to ask you all to please remember my cousin and the 36 kids that died in gaza. The murder of his cousin and the alleged beating set off protests and air strikes in gaza. Well, in less than an hour the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington will hold a rally. The stand strong for israel rally is meant to promote peace and israels right to self defense. The group will meet in northwest washington at noon today in fair gut square. Right now president obama preparing to head to delaware. Hell be in wilmington to push for more money for road projects. The president will use the i495 bridge that has been closed for months as a backdrop to make his pitch to congress. A 35 million repair project is under way to replace some support columns on the bridge. The president will use the bridge project as an example of the importance of infrastructure to the economy. Hes also expected to announce new opportunities for the private sector to invest in the countrys roads and bridges. A brand new nbc news marist poll is sizing up the 2016 president ial race. It Shows Hillary clinton leads the pack among democrats for a possible white house run. Were joined by nbc news political reporter carrie dan for a closer look. Now, in this hypothetical matchup, clinton beat Vice President biden 70 to 20 . Thats a pretty big margin. What about the republicans. In iowa and New Hampshire, these are crucial states to the president ial nominating contest, Hillary Clinton is i mean democrats in these states are ready for hillary. She is off the charts Approval Ratings among democrats. But when you look at matchups with republicans in those two states, shes not faring as well as you would have thought from all of the talk about her status as a front runner. Shes only beating people like rand paul or jeb bush by a point or two in both of those states. Now today, news4 today, chuck todd called rand paul the front runner for republicans. How are his numbers . When you ask republicans in either of these states who they want to see as their president ial nominee, the winner is actually undecided. About one in five republicans say theyre not quite sure who they want to pick so far. But the second best in both states is rand paul. Hes doing fairly well. And in those matchups against Hillary Clinton, hes actually tied in iowa with Hillary Clinton, the same amount of people on both sides saying theyd like to see him face off against the former secretary of state. And how did Chris Christie do on the republican side, and jeb bush . Theres some bad news in here for Chris Christie. A third of republicans both in iowa and New Hampshire said that theyre not crazy about the new jersey governor. Now, these are problems that hes had dating back actually before the bridge scandal, other scandals that have hurt him nationally. Republicans, especially conservative ones, have been a little skeptical of some of his moves as new jersey governor saying hes not conservative enough for him so that could be a problem for him down the line. We understand Chris Christie is on his way to iowa today. Does that signal that hes still thinking about running . I think he is. He said yesterday, be wary of people who have already made a decision. Im going to take a lot of time. That said, you dont go to iowa and New Hampshire for no reason. Hes going to be doing some work there to shore up his support and see where he is heading into the 2016 election. Does this all stem from the bridge scandal in new Jersey New York . I think on the eastern seaboard youre hearing more about that scandal than you might be in iowa. I think Iowa Republicans specifically are going to be looking more broadly at a lot of the issues. That said, this is going to continue to dog him. There are still investigations ongoing and theres still questions about the way that he led his team, regardless of whether hes eventually exonerated for that bridge scandal in the end. Well continue to monitor the polls. A couple of more months to go. We do. Thanks so much. And for more from carrie and the rest of the nbc news political team, check out first read on nbcnews. Com. What a great morning we have had, but warming up out there. How hot will it get, tom . Ive had unanimous approval so far. This gorgeous weather has really moved in quickly since yesterday and in place now, it will be with us into the afternoon and for the next several days. Can you stand it . This morning as we look at the view from space, we had our sky clearing out, a few morning clouds and now theyre well offshore. Just a few clouds have popped up out of the mountains now and temperatures around the region are beginning to rebound. Storm team 4 radar not picking up any rain around. Temperatures after we really bottomed out in the 50s and low 60s, have really climbed quickly now. Upper 70s around washington and by the bay. Farther west its a little cooler. This morning temperatures out in West Virginia in many locations were in the upper 40s to just near 50 degrees. As i mentioned earlier, if you missed it, at Dulles Airport they tied the record low this morning of 55. Yesterday afternoon i took this picture of a deep green cornfield reaching for the sky and everything is nice and green from the rains we had previously. And going forward, not much rain at all in the forecast. Low humidity in place. The next seven days heres how humidity is looking. Today and tomorrow very low. Then on saturday and sunday, humidity gets a little bit higher, but still very comfortable. And as we get into monday, it starts to really creep up. Then back to our usual heat and humidity by midweek next week, its coming back. And there is capitol hill now and later today well be up into the low 80s. Roller coaster temperatures. Tonight back down to around 60 degrees, much of the region, starting off friday morning. Then friday afternoon temperatures climb back into the mid80s. Partly cloudy tomorrow. Still low humidity in place. Then on saturday, partly sunny, highs reaching the mid80s. Just a slight chance of a thundershower mainly in the mountains on saturday afternoon. Then on sunday, partly sunny. Still not too humid, highs in the mid80s. Might get a thundershower at the beaches. Otherwise everything is looking dry for the weekend. And the storm team 4 sevenday outlook as we look into next week, we will have temperatures monday gettg into the upper 80s and getting a little more humid and partly sunny, but really no chance of any storms around. Only maybe a small chance of an isolated thunderstorm maybe on tuesday into wednesday, just because of the humidity and a little bit of heating. It will eventually get back into the low 90s for highs. It does look like on wednesday of next week. But between now and then not too hot, not too humid until the first part of next week. So its absolutely wonderful. Great weather for outdoor activities, for exercising. If you have to work outside, this is perfect for that too. Really nice. But it is summer in washington, so we know were going to get some 90s again. Its coming back. Thanks a lot, tom. Some Ebook Readers in our area could be seeing a little extra money soon. Coming up, the results of a major settlement. Plus a state dinner at the white house tomorrow. Coming up the unusual way the menu was picked for this event. First, heres a look at whats hot on nbcwashington. Com. Good news for Ebook Readers in virginia this morning. You may be getting some money pretty soon. The attorney general announced a 10. 5 million settlement with apple. The company is accused of working with publishers to raise the price of certain ebooks. The settlement still needs to be approved in court. People eligible to get some money will be notified once the ruling is made. 32 other states have sued apple for ebook pricing. Scientists are issuing a new warning for rice milk. It contains harmful levels of arsenic. The original warning applied to children under 5 years old but now Scientists Say its not safe for children over 5 either. Its used as a dairy substitute for lactose intolerance. D. C. Heads to the kitchen thats sam katz, executive chef of lets move and one of the judges f a special state dinner tomorrow featuring 54 young chefs. Theyll participate in the third annual healthy lunchtime challenge. First Lady Michelle obama is hosting the event at the white house. Kids submitted 1500 recipes. The whole idea behind the project is to help children understand how to create healthy meals and to eat deliciously. Powerball officials are encouraging you to take a look around your house, especially if you live or shop in arlington. Someone bought a Powerball Ticket for last nights drawing that ended up winning 1 million. The Winning Ticket was bought at mias market and deli in arlington. The winning numbers were 5, 15, 18, 26, 32 and the powerball number was 35. This ticket matched the first five numbers and missed only the powerball number, so thats a million dollars. Whoa, look for that ticket. Proof of just how dangerous the job of a Police Officer is. A terrible accident on what seemed like a very normal day on the job, trying to stop speeders. Well tell you what happened next. Plus, a huge milestone for a local boy who captured National Attention as he fought for his life and his family fought to save him. And storm team 4s tom kierein is describing our temperatures as a roller coaster ride. Well take a look at whether the ups and the Army Investigates why Sergeant Bowe bergdahl left his post in afghanistan, his lawyer says the public should not be so quick to judge. The military reopened its 2009 investigation. It initially revealed that bergdahl deliberately walked away from his base and was then kidnapped by the taliban. And fellow soldiers have accused bergdahl of deserting his unit, but his lawyer, eugene fidell, says theres more to come out on this story. We dont have all the facts yet. I know more than you know, and i know more than most anybody knows about what happened here. Im perfectly comfortable defending him. This is not the place to lay out a defense strategy. Is he proud to be wearing the uniform of the u. S. Military . Is he proud to be conserving his country . Yes, i believe he is. Hes back to duty. Hes on duty noncaom. Is he going to stay in the military or looking to get out . I think hes ready for the next chapter. Sergeant bergdahl spent five years in captivity before he was turned over to Army Special Forces in exchange for five detainees at guantanamo bay. This week the army put him on desk duty. Now that hes finished his initial reintegration, the military has not ruled out disciplinary action against bergdahl. A tractortrailer slammed into a Police Cruiser early this morning in new jersey killing the officer inside that cruiser. It happened about 30 miles northwest of new york city. Officer Christopher Goodell was monitoring drivers speed when the truck rearend end his car. The driver of the truck is being questioned, but so far no charges have been filed. And right now lawmakers on capitol hill are holding a hearing on the border crisis. The chairman of the Senate ForeignRelations Committee questions a process to send more unaccompanied children back home faster. Democratic senator Robert Menendez called it unacceptable to remove mandatory court hearings. Many republican lawmakers want to change the policy before approving the president s 3. 7 billion request for emergency funding. Maryland governor Martin Omalley is accusing a white house aide of leaking a phone call on immigration. Reports claim omalley privately asked the administration not to house detained children at a maryland facility. Publicly the governor criticized calls to speed up deportations. A source says he asked the white house not to send the children to westminster because they could be harassed by conservatives there. Its the same site where someone spray painted no illegals on a building. Omalley says hes not opposed to housing children in other parts of maryland. We have some breaking news. Were going back to Richard Jordan at the live desk. Barbara, were just hearing a report out of russia that a Malaysia Airlines plane has crashed and burned to the ground. This crash happened in ukraine near the russian border. The flight was going from amsterdam to kuala lumpur. There were 280 passengers on board, 15 crew members. No word on any survivors but the report coming from that area right now is that this Malaysia Airlines plane has crashed and burned into the ground. Apparently a fire ball erupted in smoke and could be seen for miles. Thats the latest from the live desk, barbara. Thank you, richard. Today were learning more deadly the same scientist who found smallpox samples discovered 300 vials of other contagious viruses and bacteria. They were in a box in a cold storage room. The fda used those samples back in the 70s and is now testing the vials. This week lawmakers are questioning lax practices that led to these new discoveries. A d. C. Man suspected in a string of bank robbery is in jail. Maurice douglas is accused of robbing three banks in one day. Police believe he is the guy in these surveillance photos from two wells fargo banks and a t. D. Bank in the district back on june 20th. Hes also accused of robbing a pnc bank a couple of weeks earlier. Homeowners are weighing their options this morning. Prince georges county officials laid out their plans for the neighborhood severely damaged homes there from the landslide. Youll remember us reporting on that back in may. The county says 22 of the 28 homes sitting on the shaky ground can be saved. The other six would be appraised and families would be given money and the homes would be knocked down. Sherri collin owns one of those six homes that the county wants to buy out. We bought this home in 2008 hoping that we would be there for a very long time. My husband and i just got married, we were just starting our family with our kids and we were hoping that one day our grandkids would come to visit. Under the plan all homeowners would still need to move out for at least six months while repairs are made. The other problem is the money. The project will cost least 15 million were told. The county says it can spend a maximum of 11 million and its calling on the state to pony up the rest. Get out now, thats the warning to people in Central Washington whose homes are in the path of wildfires. An orange and black haze is over the town of leavenworth east of seattle. Ashes are falling from the sky, roads are closed and nearly 900 homeowners are being urged to evacuate. Flames are being fed by tripledigit temperatures and strong winds. The wildfire covers two square miles and theres zero containment, at least right now. Lets check on our weather. Tom kierein is standing by with his forecast and hes outside on the storm team 4 weather deck where hes enjoying this mild morning. Good morning again. Good morning, barbara. Fast forward two months. It does feel like late september, not midjuly. Gorgeous day, low humidity. Its just absolutely perfect. There is the view overlooking Reagan National airport on this thursday afternoon. Just a few clouds floating in a blue sky. Excellent visibility with the low humidity that we have around. 78 there at Reagan National. And its in the mid to upper 70s around the bay. Much of southern maryland, gorgeous there too. The humidity has be swept away there and to our north and west its even a little bit cooler. Right now just in the low 70s in the shenandoah valley, gorgeous day there. Gorgeous day along skyline drive. Out of the mountains, many locations there are in the upper 60s and low 70s. Right now around the metro area generally in the mid70s. Nearby suburbs. For the afternoon remaining mostly sunny. Low 80s. Low humidity in place through the afternoon. Overnight tonight and into tomorrow. Not quite as chilly as this morning, down by 60 by dawn on friday. Afternoon highs mid80s tomorrow. Still comfortable humidity and that nice humidity remains much of the weekend. Just a tad more humid on saturday, sunday. Highs mid80s. Getting rather steamy next week. Highs 80s monday, tuesday. Low 90s on wednesday. Only a very small chance of any storms around each day for the next seven days. Barbara . Thank you, tom. Visa is launching a new service to make it easier for you to shop online. Its called visa checkout. Heres how it works. You sign up with your debit or credit card and only have to enter your information once. Then youll be able to pay for things just by using your name and password. Its similar to paypal and amazons oneclick checkout. Visa is teaming up with several retailers for this service like Neiman Marcus and staples. Well, the cost to put teens on your insurance is up and way up. Insurance costs 79 more after a married couple adds a teen driver to their policy. Rates for teen boys are 25 higher than for girls. And premiums are the highest for 16yearolds. West virginia is the ninth highest state to insure a teen driver. Insuran insurancequotes. Com did this report. Virginia is cracking down on teen sexting. Our north Virginia Bureau dug up search warrants showing a push by police. They are charging minors as felons in some cases. Trey sims is charged with manufacturing and producing child pornography. Hes accused of sexting his then 15yearold girlfriend. Former prosecutor Jonathan Phillips says teens could be sent to jail unless virginia law is changed. I think that if we could go back and say we see this coming, we see that theres a possibility that the children will be doing this, they may have written the law differently. School systems like Fairfax County are using videos to help curb the rise of sexting, but the School System still turns over sexting cases to School Resources officers who then have detectives investigate. More on breaking news now, lets go back to Richard Jordan at the live desk. Whats happening . An unsettling report about that Malaysia Airlines plane that crashed over ukraine. Were now hearing that plane was shot down. This is a passenger jet. About 300 people were on board that plane. Its a Malaysia Airlines plane. The same airline for the missing plane weve been reporting about. It was going from amsterdam to kuala lumpur. It was reportedly shot down over the ukraine near the russian border. Heres an nbc news special report. And good afternoon, everyone. Good morning, everyone. Im matt lauer along with savannah guthrie. This is an nbc news special report. The news we bring you today is a little bit difficult to track down and confirm but were getting a lot of reports, especially over social media and other sources that a plane has crashed somewhere near the ukrainerussia border. We are being told this is a malaysia air flight that started out in amsterdam on its way to kuala lumpur. And apparently this happened somewhere near the ukrainianrussian border in that airspace. We want to get right to nbcs tom costello. Weve got multiple other news organizations reporting from that area that there were 295 souls on board. Tom, whats the latest youve been able to find out . Reporter we are told this is Malaysia Flight 17, 17. Amsterdam to kuala lumpur. It was a boeing 777 and it has gone down, we are led to believe by these reports coming from the Interfax News Agency out of russia as well as the a. P. And reuters, gone down near the ukrainian and russian border, an area that has been the scene of a great deal of military conflict. There are reports from interfax that the plane was shot down 20 miles short of russian airspace. Nbc news has not been able to confirm that, but there are reports on interfax as well as social media that the plane may have been shot down just short of russian airspace. 280 passengers on board and 15 crew members. This coming about four and a half months since Malaysia Flight 370 disappeared on a flight to china, to beijing from kuala lumpur and of course the search still continues for that plane now believed to have gone missing or gone down somewhere in the south atlantic pardon me, the south indian ocean, off the coast of australia. They still havent found any sign of that plane. But this is an unrelated incident. Again, a report that this plane missing and has gone down near the yukrainiaukrainianrussian possibly shot down. I know there have been reports on social media there might be some video circulating, amateur video of a plane on fire in that area. Interesting, though, report here, this comes from sky news and it says this. Malaysia airlines confirms incident on board one of its flights amid reports of a plane crash in ukraine. The wording on board one of its flights is what catches me. And we dont have any more than that. This just crossing. An adviser to ukraines interior minister, according to the a. P. , says a malaysian passenger plane carrying 295 people on board has been shot down over a town in the east of ukraine. This is coming from an adviser to Ukraines Interior Ministry using that language, shot down. Of course we dont have that independently ourselves. I have seen that video. I will tell you i have seen that video, that social media video. It looks like a very large explosion or fire. We have no way to know if that is in fact a plane thats burning and on fire and we have no idea what plane, if any, is on fire in that video. Tom, i know were all digesting this together. Heres an authoritative source. Malaysia airlines itself, a tweet saying it has lost contact with mh17, which originated from amsterdam. The last known position was over ukrainian airspace and the airline says more details will follow. We want to mention its, what, about plus seven hours in that area right now so coming up on 6 30 in the evening in ukraine. This would have been about a 12hour flight from amsterdam to kuala lumpur, so somewhere about halfway through, maybe a little before halfway through that flight when whatever happened on board or to that flight did occur. Lets bring in former ntsb investigator greg feist. What are you target to hear and when can you put together from these little pieces of information . Based on what tom has talked about, that is the initial information. Right now the faa and boeing are working to obtain additional information. Boeing typically has Field Service reps in that area so theyll be able to try and get some on the ground information. Of course the faa will be talking to their counterparts around the world, including Malaysia Airlines to see what in fact has occurred with the loss of contact with this airplane. Greg, you are an aviation expert, not necessarily a military expert. When were starting to hear reports that this plane was possibly shot down, it would have been traveling above 30,000 feet at this stage in its flight. So what can you tell us based on that information . Theres going to be a coordination between the faa, our military and of course all of our military intelligence over in that region because, like you said, if it was at High Altitude it would have taken a High Altitude shootdown or at least an aircraft to fire a missile at High Altitude unless it was a groundbased missile that was fired. Again, satellite data will confirm that. Intelligence will confirm that. And then of course any kind of investigative activity that takes place will be looking for those telltale signs of a shootdown or an explosion type event that will confirm or validate whether in fact this was a shootdown. We should mention of course this isnt happening just anywhere, apparen right along that very tense border between ukraine and russia. There have been reports of russian fighter jets, shootdowns, things happening in that area recently so its worth bringing in michael leiter, an nbc security analyst. Michael, as we very well know, we have very sketchy details right now, but set the stage for us because this is happening in an extremely volatile area of the world. Yeah, youre obviously right. Theres been enormous amount of conflict there, including some surfacetoair missile fire taking down several ukrainian jets. Some arguments from the ukrainian side that the most recent takedown of a Ukrainian Military flight was from a surfacetoair missile on the russian side of the border. Given the altitude of the plane, if this was and we obviously have to stress if this was a surfacetoair missile, this has to be a radarguided High Altitude missile. The standard mobile infrared shoulderfired missiles generally wouldnt get up to an altitude of 30,000 plus feet. So its certainly a possibility. There has been confusion in the past where civilian airliners have been taken down when theyre in tense areas, most notably, of course, the u. S. Shooting down an iranian passenger plane back in the 80s in the persian gulf. Michael, are you in a place where you can actually see our picture or are you just in a place where you can hear us . Just hear you, matt. For our viewers, were going to run a piece of video and this is a youtube video. This is amateur video. I want to tell you right now we cannot confirm the reliability of this video, that this has something to do with this subject were talking about, this loss of this aircraft. But this is that video that purports to be of the crash of this flight, malaysia air flight 17, somewhere inside ukraine not far from the russian border. This is the video that is now making the rounds on social media. Again, we cannot at nbc news independently confirm that this is authentic video. For what its worth, all of the reports that are out there suggesting it could have been shot down are coming from within ukraine. An adviser to ukraines interior minister being cited by other journalists in the area so we, of course, have not confirmed that. As far as the official word which is the best we have from malaysia air, they have lost contact with Malaysian Air flight 17, which is en route from amsterdam to kuala lumpur today. And again that brief report from sky news earlier citing malaysia air officials saying they had reports of an incident on board one of their flights. Dont know if thats just lost in translation, you know, with a different language whether they meant something happened on the plane before this plane went down or they just mean something happened with one of their flights. But just to recap what we know right now, malaysia we believe, we have no independent confirmation of this, that malaysia air flight 17 has been involved in some major difficulty, that is a 777 aircraft, possibly as many as 295 people on board, maybe 280 passengers. 15 members of the crew. It was traveling today from amsterdam to kuala lumpur. It has reportedly crashed somewhere in about a third way through that flight. As we said, many reports now coming in that it was possibly shot down. If so, it is assed it would have been traveling at a height of something around 30,000 feet. Do we still have tom costello with us . Maybe we can check back in and see if hes been able to glean anymore. Malaysia airlines in a tweet said did lose contact with flight 17. It has lost contact with flight 17. Reuters is also out saying that an eastern pardon me, reuters is saying here that they believe according to Interfax News Agency that the plane was shot down by a buk, buk, buk air missile. Thats from interfax. Now, a buk groundtoair missile was common in the former soviet union as part of their arsenal. Keep in mind ukraine was part of the former soviet union. We have no idea if this is in fact what happened. All were doing is passing along the reporting coming from interfax via reuters and the Associated Press and malaysia confirming they have lost contact with their flight over ukrainian airspace they say. Back to you. And any time you say lost contact with their flight, its impossible to talk about this story without putting it in the context of what happened back on march 8th of this year. Malaysia air flight 370 lost contact. That was the flight that was going from kuala lumpur to beijing with 227 passengers on board, 12 crew members. No piece of debris from that plane has been found to this date. It disappeared without a trace. And of course absolutely no indication at this point that theres any relation to that incident, but of course one cant help but think of that in light of todays events. Lets get to greg feit, a former ntsb investigator. Greg, what are your thoughts as were just starting to digest this information and getting these little bits and pieces . I think right now as michael has talked about theres got to be some confirmation because this is going to change the complexion of the type of investigation thats conducted, whether its a pure accident or intentional act. That will dictate who will be the authority or authorities that will be conducting the investigation. Greg, can i ask you as someone who knows this type of an aircraft, if in fact a groundtoair missile were fired at a plane like this or aircraft like this traveling at some 30,000 feet, would they have radar confirmation of that in the cockpit . Might they have time to get off a radio distress call to someone on the ground . Thats a good question, matt. Thats a good question, matt, only because depending on if this was a shootdown with a missile, depending on how much destruction that missile caused, that would dictate whether or not the crew would be able to get a radio call off. Would they have had indication that that missile was incoming . No, because the only system on the airplane which is called tcap sbar gates transponders of other aircraft in the area to give them a position. This missile would not have a transponder. So its not like a fighter jet weve seen in the movies where they know something is targeting them. Thats correct. Weve been putting up this video of the flight tracker which was the trajectory of this flight. Greg, you speak fluent airlineese. Do you make anything of the way Malaysian Airlines has said about losing contact with the plane. Do you interpret anything deeper there . No, they are being abundantly cautious, especially in light of what you just talked about with their previous malaysian flight. They dont want to start giving away information without having a factual basis for it because both the malaysians and of course the malaysian government have been criticized in the past. I think theyll pick their words very carefully as this information starts to come out and they can vet that information. You know, as opposed to any kind of terror act, as youve been talking about, it would seem this flight originates in the netherlands heading to kuala lumpur. If it is simply flying through ukrainian airspace, this would seem as if it were targeted by some groundtoair missile, that it might just have been a tragic accident. One of the big one of the big things, matt, is whether or not the airspace that they were in. We saw this years ago with a Korean Airline flight that was shot down because they strayed into restricted airspace. So the question, of course, will be whether or not this airplane was on a proper flight path and did they get into some level of restricted airspace and were mistakenly identified as a threat. Do we still have mike leiter with us on the phone . I am. Mike, former Counterterrorism Center director under the obama administration. We just heard reports from tom costello unconfirmed that it could have been a buk launcher, buk. Obviously this was something that used to be used in the soviet union. When you hear that, does that give you any indication of what might have happened here . I think the location and the frequency of airplanes being targeted, not civilian airliners, being targeted in this area can make investigators immediately look in that direction. Weve talked about two instances where this has happened in the past, one shot down by the then soviet union and then the u. S. Navy shooting down an iranian airliner. So these things have happened in the past. The location certainly makes you very concerned about that. As we talked about in the previous Malaysian Airliner mystery, you know, the 777 is an incredibly modern plane flying in a very routine flight path. For it to fall out of the sky is not it is almost unheard of. So thats why i think as doug has said you start to look at these other possibilities of catastrophic events. Just to repeat this a. P. Report, an adviser to ukraines interior minister, this is something savannah mentioned not long ago, says that a malaysian passenger plane carrying up to 295 people has been shot down over a town in the eastern part of that country. He says on his Facebook Page the plane was flying at an altitude of about 33,000 feet. Let me go back to tom costello. I think hes got a bit more information. Tom . We are all just trying to read what we can off of our foreign sources. That same individual is also saying that this was a missile fired by separatists. Now, keep in mind theres going to be an awful lot, i suspect, of information, misinformation, disinformation over the coming hours as they try to figure out what exactly happened here and there could very well be a blame game. But initially anyway the Ukrainian Interior Ministry is blaming this on separatists claiming a missile fired by them hit this plane at 10,000 meters, about 33,000 feet, bringing down this boeing 777. As we have said, just a horrific, a horrific sight in Eastern Ukraine and following four and a half months after Malaysia Flight 370 disappeared. Malaysia airlines is confirm it has lost contact with this plane over ukrainian territory. Our information about the plane going down is coming from the Ukrainian Interior Ministry as well as the Interfax News Agency out of russia. All reports suggesting at this point it was brought down by a missile and the ukrainians blaming separatists at this point. Tom, we have been showing that video of what seems to be a plume of smoke coming up from the ground. Just to reiterate, although that is making the rounds and a lot of people are seeing that and saying it is directly associated with the crash of this airplane, we have not independently confirmed that what youre seeing is the plume of flight from malaysia air flight 17. Weve been hearing from ukrainian authorities. Theres word that we may hear from the ukrainian president a statement soon. Tom provides the right caution that this is a place where theres a ton of conflict going on right now. We may have information and accusations and thats something well all have to sort through in the coming moments. Now, the imagery is starting to pile up here. We have a second video now. Again, we have not independently confirmed this is authentic but here is another piece of video from a similar area showing that plume of smoke beginning to rise from the ground. Again, this is said to be the result of the crash of this flight, 17, malaysia air flight 17, that 777 that has now been confirmed by malaysia air that has lost contact with the ground. Shall we turn to Evan Kohlmann, hes with us now, an nbc terrorism expert who watches this area very closely. Evan, you are in the same position as all of us, just starting to try to put this information together. Does anything stand out to you . Well, so far the reports from Russian Media are citing this as being the act of a buk missile system, which is a medium range surfacetoair missile launching system. Its not something that terrorist groups use, its a piece of military equipment. So whoever was operating this, they had access to serious military equipment. This is not what youve seen in the past in iraq and elsewhere where people operating shoulderfired surfacetoair missile launchers have taken shots at lowflying aircraft. This is an aircraft that was flying at apparently 30,000 feet. And so the chance that this was done by a conventional terrorist group like al qaeda or Something Like that, its almost nonexistent. Given what we know, evan, is this something where you think given that its military equipment, not some rogue actor, does it sound like what people are presuming at the moment that it might be some kind of accident . Its hard to say. You think back to the incident that happened with the Korean Airliner back in the 1980s and unfortunately sometimes when there are tensions and missiles being fired, civilian aircraft get too close and things like this happen. But if you look at the fallout that happened after the tailspin incident, theres good reason to believe that if this was the work of separatists, this is extremely bad news for them and reflects extremely poorly on the kind of target selection theyre doing. If you look over the past few days there are a number of different attacks, missile attacks on ukrainian aircraft flying near that border. Its one thing once a military target, but you think about an international airliner, i would say thats bad news for the separatists if its proven it was them that fired this missile. Evan, thank you very much. Stand by. Michael, stand by as well. Tom costello if you will as well. Weve got Jim Miklaszewski at the pentagon. Jim, what are you hearing . Officials here at the pentagon are scrambling to figure out just what happened here. Although they do point out that if this plane was shot down as the Ukrainian Defense ministry claims, it would have had to have been, as Evan Kohlmann indicated a moment ago, it would have had to have been a militarystyle weapon. According to officials and documents we have here in our office, both ukrainians and the russians have the same kind of buk surfacetoair missiles that are capable of bringing down an airliner. They dont know this yet. Theyre scrambling to work it all out. Were going to take a quick break here. Some of you at stations across the country will be leaving us. Others will continue with this special report. Of course well have more coverage on this situation throughout the day. We are back with more of our special report, matt lauer with savannah guthrie, covering what appears to be the shooting down of a civilian passenger jet, Malaysian Air flight 17 on route from amsterdam to koala lumpur a short time ago, has apparently been shot down over Eastern Ukraine. We are having multiple reports from news organizations, people citing authorities inside ukraine suggesting it was shot down, perhaps by separatists. The pentagon is watching this closely. We go to Jim Miklaszewski. What are you hearing from sources about what theyre making of the incident . Reporter they are scrambling to tryo