pickup once again. nbc news gabe gutierrez has the very latest. reporter: six months ago, this didn t seem possible. puerto rico s economic engine sputtering to life after hurricane maria. i think now more than ever we have to contribute to their economy because they need the tourism. reporter: these couples from baltimore soaking in the sun after refusing to scrap their vacation plans. but some of their friends did. i think it s our responsibility to look out for those people. it is part of the united states. reporter: outside the capital city, several mountain communities are still desperate for power, supplies and attention. those in damaged resorts will be closed for months more than 85% of the island s hotels are back up and running. an industry critical for the long-term recovery here. they re very happy that the island is open for business. reporter: this carnival cruise with 2200 passengers is sold out. tourism officials are hoping for
and why we continue to create new technology to connect you to the people and places that matter. a plane plunges into flames. the family inside the house they escaped. kelly wright is here now with brand new information for us. good morning to you. the national transportation and safety board ntsb is expected to arrive at the crash scene today to investigate the crash. the investigators will be able to hear from several people who heard and saw the plane come down. one person who saw the plane coming down says it was like thunder shaking the house. kind of like an earthquake. you could hear the engine sputtering and moments later they heard a crash and saw
service. the british prime minister tweeted about the situation my thoughts are with everybody affected in glasgow and the emergency services working tonight. richard quest joining us again live by phone. richard, a terrible situation. it s still very early in this case. but is there any idea of what caused this crash? reporter: no, absolutely not. all we know from eyewitnesses is that a helicopter from the port, a police helicopter, was over the area at the time. and then according to eyewitnesses appeared to lose power. some say they heard it turning. and others say she heard the sound of an engine sputtering. one eyewitness said she saw it on the roof and then fall through the roof. why the helicopter suddenly lost height, what happened with the engine, fuel, we just don t know. and we also don t know, george,
an engine sputtering as the plane went over, but fortunately the plane did go down a half mile away from where those houses were, as it proceeded closer to the airport, it landed several hundred yards outside of the fencing of the actual airport here. what we are looking at this morning, the national transportation safety board has investigators on the ground. they are no doubt going right for the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder and looking at the wreckage and those devices are designed to survive crashes like this, so they should be able to retrieve those and get information quickly. we are expecting to hear from them in a couple of hours what the preliminary findings and observations might be here, and adding to the mystery is the mayor of birmingham, william bell, he told me earlier today that talking to the faa officials in the tower that the pilot e never radioed the tower here to indicate that he was in any sort of trouble. again, something adding to the myste
instructor on board managed to eject. this photo shows the men walking away from the scene minutes after the crash. no word on why the jet went down but witnesses say they heard the engine sputtering before the crash. airline food is known known isn t known for being very good and now is being blamed for making 16 people very ill. passengers started throwing up on a flight from istanbul to new york city. investigators are looking into whether the chicken they ate is the culprit. after six days of being held hostage by his own employees, an american executive is finally free. this is brand-new video at chip starnes leaves his factory in china. his workers held him captive until they gave him severance packages like the ones he laid off.