marines, after a midair refueling accident off the coast of japan. here s abc s chief global affairs correspondent martha raddatz with what she s learned tonight. reporter: tonight, with five marines still missing, and the search hampered by strong winds and low visibility, time is running out. the f-18 fighter, like this one, was attempting to refuel in the middle of the night, with the massive kc-130 tanker, essentially a flying gas station, when the two aircraft collided midair. the refueler has retractable hoses with baskets on the ends. the fighter jet must plug its own nozzle into the moving basket. the aircraft coming within about 20 feet of each other, using night vision goggles. although the f-18 has radar, it s night. you have no visual horizon. it s a dark sea underneath you. and visual illusions are easy to mistake, especially when you re trying to rendezvous close on another airplane. reporter: the two marines who
scandal. hasn t leaked in any sort of extra judicial manner to suggest his findings. every turn is a complete surprise. a guy that also could have made a ton of money, mika, but it was always public service first. that s right. so to some other stories making headlines this morning, u.s. and japanese authorities are currently searching for five missing marines near gentlemanen pan. it comes after a pair of military planes collided during a refuel training accident about 200 miles off the coast. joining us now nbc news pent concorrespondent hans nichols. what s the latest? well, the latest is they re facing some difficult seas there in the sea of japan with these rescue efforts. they re still looking, as you mentioned, for those five marines. what happened was you had a refueling plane, a kc-130 collide, an f-18. they ve pulled two of those marines out.
tonight, a nation bids farewell to a president. his son, george w. bush, breaking down while honoring his father, president george herbert walker bush. all living u.s. presidents and first ladies, their hands to their hearts. tonight, what brought a son to tears. and the moment president trump arrived, the nation watching. the interaction between him and former presidents and first ladies. a rare moment to see all of them together. also tonight, the breaking news. two marine planes plunging into the sea. an f-18 and a c-130. several american service members onboard. tonight, an urgent search and rescue under way. at least one rescued. the scare inside the amazon warehouse amid this holiday shipping season. dozens suddenly sickened. at least one critical tonight. what s behind it? the dangerous storms on the
the 41st president. important unity for the country. jon karl, thanks so much for your reporting all day. and our coverage of the celebration of george h.w. bush continues tomorrow. the final service at st. martin s episcopal church in houston. that s at 11:00 a.m. eastern tomorrow morning, right here. in the meantime, we do move onto the other news this wednesday night. and there is a breaking headline tonight. a military accident involving a marine fa-18 and a kc-130, plunging into the sea off the coast of japan. several american service members onboard, and there is a search and rescue mission under way at this hour. here s abc s chief global affairs correspondent martha raddatz tonight. reporter: the midair mishap was in the middle of the night, in cloudy skies, 200 miles off the ast of japan. both aircraft ended up in the water, indicating a midair collision. details are still unclear, but the f-18, like this one, may have been attempting to refuel off of the kc-130.
this just in. two u.s. military aircraft have crashed off the coast of japan, according to a u.s. defense official. it s believed there are five people on board, service members. the c-130 and two service members on the f-18 that went down. this is just initial reports. the u.s. marine corps says search and rescue operations are under way and the crashes happened during a regularly scheduled training. we re going to continue to monitor the situation and cnn will bring more news on this as it develops. also in our world lead today, has president trump been duped by a dictator? new satellite images obtained exclusively by cnn show that north korea is expanding a key missile base despite the president s claims. north korea has not held any nuclear tests or missile tests since his summit with kim jong-un, but the regime is not living up to the agreements it made in singapore in june and