House. Why evangelicals may be more important than ever in choosing the next republican nominee. And speaking of republican president ial candidates, why is one courting the survivalist crowd by suggesting it is time to stock up and hoard supplies . Im chuck todd. Joining me for insight and analysis are nbcs Joe ScarboroughHillary Clintons former policy director, neera tanden Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post and sam stein of the huffington post. Welcome to sunday. Its meet the press. This is meet the press with chuck todd. A topic that dominated conversation around the world, the news that a plane crashed into the alps with 150 people on board was horrific enough. But the story took a bizarre and even more disturbing turn when it became clear that the copilot had deliberately slammed it into the mountain, turning it into a mass murder. Were learning more about that pilot Andreas Lubitz every day and a picture is emerging of a mentally disturbed man who never should have been allowed in the cockpit. For the latest on trying to find out about this pilot, im joined by nbcs katy tur, in the pilots hometown of montabaur, germany. What more have we learned about andreas and about what happened in those final moments . Reporter well, even more horrifying tee inging details are coming out. A newspaper here in germany, the largest tabloid, is reporting on a timeline of the final moments of that plane. They said the pilot mentioned when they take off that he hadnt gone to the bathroom in spain copilot lubitz says you should go while were in the air, the pilot doesnt respond. Once they reach altitude the pilot says that he will go, gets up goes to the bathroom, next thing you here is the door clicking shut and the pilot banging on the door saying open the damn door and then him taking an ax to the door as the passengers scream. This is being reported by a newspaper out here. Nbc news has not been able to verify it. But if it is true, it is chilling details of the final moments. Theyre also reporting a lot on his medical condition. The New York Times reports that he had eye issues that would have prevented him from flying in the future. There are also reports there was depression involved here. So far nbc news hasnt been able to verify that either. But the Prosecutors Office did find doctors notes, torn up doctors notes inside the home, before the day of the crash that were in the given to lufthansa ones that would have excused him from work. Theyre looking into all of this now and trying to piece together exactly what was going on inside his mind at the time of the crash. Chuck . Katy tur thank you very much. I know youll keep reporting and building a profile of this pilot. Im joined by nbcs aviation correspondent, tom costello and erin bowen, an Aviation Psychology expert from embryriddle aeronautical university. Welcome to you both. Tom, following up on this report this morning, you hear an ax. There are axes on airplanes . There is an ax we know for sure in the cockpit, thats standard procedure. But there is also according to lufthansa, they have one hidden in the passenger compartment, and only the crew members know where that ax might be. So we were a little surprised by that as well to find there is an ax somewhere hidden in the cabin, but apparently there is. Now, we cant confirm the bilds reporting that the pilot was using an ax to try to get through the door. But in theory, there is an ax in the cabin. Were having a larger conversation about Mental Health and Mental Fitness of pilots. I think were finding out that there isnt a lot of Mental Health checks done of pilots. Is that right, erin . Right. The psychological assessments that are available for use, typically at the time of new hire for Airline Pilots, are not the types of tools that would detect Mental Illness. Theyre primarily things like personality inconvenientventoryies. Interesting here according to a guide for the aviation medical examiners, the faa does not expect an examiner to perform a formal psychiatric examination, however the examiner should form a general impression of the emotional stability and mental state of the applicant. There is no Mental Health check . No because those tools just arent as sophisticated as the medical examines and diagnostic tests you can get annually for your physical. Youre talking about during the year, the yearly physical. Not a mental physical. But there is a psychological workup that is done before and during the hiring process that is rather rigorous, but not during the yearly physical. Not an annual thing that is done . Well, only you know better than i, but as i understand it you would ask cursory questions. Right. So your physician, when you go into your aviation medical examiner, would ask questions about your sleep, any Substance Abuse alcohol use personal life, stressors, but theyre not trained psychiatrists or psychological experts. Theyre primary care physicians. Does that need to change . No, actually. I dont think it does. Psychological assessments are not magic diagnostic tools that would tell us this is an individual with depression who is imminently going to crash a plane full of innocent passengers. Theyre just not that sophisticated. Tom there was a time where if you had any Mental Health condition, you were not allowed to be a licensed commercial Airline Pilot. They had to ease those restrictions. In 2010, the faa changed the rules, essentially acknowledging that people are living with depression and certain Mental Health issues every single day and do so very well in this country. They take meds, they get therapy. So in 2010, the faa came out and said, listen, if you selfdisclose if you come to us and say im dealing with personal issues, im dealing with Mental Health and depression, and what have you, i would like to seek help, the faa says fine thats all right, well take you out of the cockpit for a year, if you get that help and you can come back and be in the cockpit and be on some antidepressants, for example, including zoloft, then thats all right. If you function well, if youre cleared by a doctor. You have to selfreport. You have to selfreport. There is an incentive to selfreporting. If you dont selfreport and those meds show up in your yearly blood work, then youre talking about suspension or fines. So there is an incentive. Erin we should be relieved here in this country mr. Lubitz would have never qualified to be an Airline Pilot in this country right . Not according to the restrictive atp requirements. You need 1500 hours of flight time or a thousand hours from a qualified approved school in order to be a copilot. There is no way this guy could have been a pilot here. I find this almost egregious that somebody who has lufthansa, this is not like this is the Gold Standard for airlines around the world, and since 2013, this guy had been a first officer and only accumulated up to 630 hours in total . In the United States, you can nobt not be a first officer, but this comes after the colgan aircraft where we saw crew members not up to the job in the cockpit didnt have enough training and experience, and were subpar in terms of the captain and the performance and the testing. For lufthansa to be hiring somebody with so few hours is concerning. Very quickly. I would disagree this say failure of training. This is a Mental Health issue. At 630 hours more than capable pilot and up to four years ago, a more than capable pilot in the United States. This is really a Mental Health failure and a failure for us to recognize and change the culture and industry. Erin bowen, tom costello thank you, both. Lets bring in the panel, Joe Scarborough, neera tanden, Kathleen Parker, sam stein. Kathleen, you wrote about this, this week, monster in the sky. I feel like were having were about to have the same conversation we had when we talked about the shooting in aurora or shooting in were talking about Mental Health issues and maybe thats the conversation we should be having. Im always happy to talk about Mental Health issues and we dont talk about it enough across the board. However, im not convinced that we know that this is absolutely a Mental Health circumstance. I mean the fact he might have had antidepressants in his daily regimen doesnt necessarily mean hes not capable of doing his job or that he was somehow fail in the air. There is no evidence that hes had some psychotic event thus far. I dont know how we would discover it, but the fact he had a rumbled up doctors excuse not to work that day doesnt to me confirm this is strictly a Mental Health problem. Fair enough. But i have to say joe you start finding out, we dont really check we dont do Mental Health checkups for pilots. We all fly a lot. Thats a little disconcerting to me. I get on the plane last night to come up we got the end of the kids spring break, i walk up and turn to the pilot and say, are you happy . You doing okay . And the pilot just looked at me and said, any suicidal thoughts, everything okay . And the guy laughed. He got what i was talking about. But you always look at the pilot, especially as you get older and you realize the pilots are younger and younger and now some of those pilots are younger than my 27yearold son. So there has to be some Mental Health screening. It is just like when somebody tried to get on a plane with liquid to blow things up. Now we do the i will say this, lets celebrate something that the federal government does right in this country, aviation. We see all around the world one crash after another one unexplained crash after another, you know. Tip our hats i was going to say they do a great job, knock on wood. Before you jump in later in the show, i have this interview with Patrick Kennedy i did, and one part hes become this big Mental Health advocate. Listen to what he says, he thinks we need to make Mental Health more of a normalized thing when it comes to medical. 40,000 suicides and counting a year 16,000 overdoses more than are killed in car accidents, the epidemic of addiction and Mental Illness in this country and were paralyzed as a nation in the way that we cope with it. Were doing a lot of oneoffs, but we have no agenda for Mental Health and addiction. He continued, his hope is that the way you get an annual physical you do the same thing an annual mental physical. And there would be no stigma to that. You know, we dont spend relatively that much money on Mental Health services in this country somewhere under 6 of our National Health care spending. So clearly there is room for growth there. Science and research, the Brain Initiative to give us science into this thing. With the context of this we need to remember two things. Aviation safety is pretty good and keeps Getting Better year by year. And, two, one of the problems here was not the Mental Health, but the fact that europe doesnt have the tools in the cockpit. In the United States, this man would have never been alone in the cockpit, a copilot there at all times. In europe, that wasnt the case f there had been somebody else there, we probably would have had different circumstances. Were celebrating American Government regulation. I think if we make Mental Health screening more regular, it takes away the stigma, which is one of the reasons why it is important in the u. S. That we had the kind of safe director we had had. And what Patrick Kennedy talks about, started with kids. We need to start it early. And then normalize. You brought this up, it is a very important point, we talked about it after newtown and now, what is the line that connect us . It is Mental Health. We can talk about airline safety, but it goes back to Mental Health. We can talk about gun control at the end of the day, got to talk about Mental Health. Well pause here. When we come back, the latest on the Critical Nuclear talks with iran, the deadline were now hours away. And also if it seems as if were fighting both sides in the middle east, with iran and against them, push your enterprise and you can move the world. But to get from the old way to the new, youll need the right it infrastructure. From a partner who knows how to make your enterprise more agile, borderless and secure. Hp helps businesses move on all the possibilities of today. And stay ready for everything that is still to come. Anyone have occasional constipation diarrhea, gas, bloating . Yes one Phillips Colon Health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these occasional digestive issues. With 3 types of good bacteria. Live the regular life. Phillips in Small Business you have to work hard, know your numbers, and stay focused. I was determined to create new york citys first selfserve frozen yogurt franchise. And now you have 42 locations. The more i put into my business the more i get out of it. Like 5x your rewards when you make select business purchases with your ink plus card from chase. And with ink, i choose how to redeem my points for things like cash or travel. Hows the froyo . Just peachy. Literally. Ink from chase. So you can. And were back. Talks of iran are in the final hours ahead of the selfimposed tuesday deadline and john kerry has cancel med a plan return to the u. S. And a final push to get this deal done. Never shy to speak out on the fears and the Prime Minister has stated this morning that the deal that seems to be emerging is worse than he had feared. For latest on the talks i am joined with andrea mitchel. Theres a lot more about a deal getting done. Reporter there certainly is. This is an 18th month investigation and days to go. There are some stumbling blocks. The biggest Sticking Point is that theyre refuseing to give up on Nuclear Equipment that can be used for peaceful purposes and used to create Nuclear Weapons. The second Sticking Point is the lebt of sanctioning when they would be phased out and how quickly they could be lifted. Those are complications and both sides doing for this technical reasons and both doing it to blame each other if it falls apart. This is the first time that u. S. Officials are talking about what would happen if theres no deal. And the fall out if theres no deal politically does that put the president in a stronger position domestically . Well it could. You have the democrats and some allies andize more broadly with so many other problems on the policy front the white house sees this as the legacy. Thats why they were so angry of the opposition. They wants this badly. Do they want it too badly . They have the limits on the program, and they have not violated them were told. During the negotiations all bets are off and they can do what they want and they can spot un inspectors from getting in. Okay. Thank you. I know that youre going to be there if it hands out. I am joined by Christopher Hill and he also served a chief me dposh yay or the in north korea that was unsuccessful talks in 2005 and 2008 and welcome to meet the press. Let me just start with what you heard as the Sticking Point. Take us inside this room. You have been at this point before. You hear this pessimism. Is it real or are they playing with us a little bit . Its a little bit of both. Certainly from the u. S. Advantage point they have to go back to washington and over sell the deal. The deal is so hinged on technical issues that its hard to sell. It does not sing when you bring it back to people. The iran needs to come back and say that we got it sanctioned. Its going to be tough. For both sides its not a clean deal. Both sides are going to have a he can f of a time selling it back in capitals and so i think that some of the pessimisms is very real. When you look were at a point and this week you look at the developments in yemen and getting involved in what they think and how can the United States be helping to strengthen the region by cutting a deal on the Nuclear Front and then cause more problems for the key allies like saudi . Well now theres a repel i dont know and from the perspective, these are tough times. They look at this deal from iran and what they see is something that goes beyond the nuclear issue. They see some kind of emerging or reemerging partnership with the u. S. And iran. They look back and saw a u. S. That considered or considered i ran the main factor in the middle east. They do not want to see that kind of issue, so from there perspective things have been very tough especially about iran and other and then by the way were asking them to g