Leaving thousands of cruise passengers high and dry. And back in session. The prosecution gets set to wrap its case as the Oscar Pistorius trial enters the fourth week. Monday, march 24th, 2014. Announcer from nbc news, this is today. With matt lauer and Savannah Guthrie live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Welcome to today. It is monday out on the west coast at 7 00 a. M. We have big news out of malaysia. The Prime Minister is holding a News Conference and has made announcement regarding flight 370. Evidently saying it is beyond all reasonable doubt that the flight was lost in the indian ocean. Lets get to nbcs tom costello who has been following the investigation. Good morning, matt. The families received an email from the airline. It says we deeply regreet we have to assume that flight 370 has been lost and none on board has survived. You will hear in the Prime Ministers comments, we must now accept that all evidence suggests the plane went down in the southern indian ocean. Of course, that is where this search has been focused. All the way down from malaysia down to about 1,500 miles off the coast of perth, australia. In the last 24 hours, we had chinese aircraft reporting they have spotted debris outside of the grid outside of the search area. The australians think they spotted debris inside the search area. We dont know if that is debris from flight 370. All we know is in the case of the australian debris, it is green and it is orange. In the case of the chinese debris, it is large. At this point, they are trying to get more information. Guys, back to you. Thank you. This is a Big Development for the families who have just been briefed. Lets pause for a special report. Good morning. 10 00 a. M. On the east coast. 7 00 a. M. On the west coast. We got sad news from the malaysian Prime Minister announcing new information has led them to conclude beyond any shadow of a doubt, this Malaysian Airlines flight 370 was in fact lost over the southern indian ocean. All evidence points this fact, but not what evidence they have. We will hear more about that in the coming moments our hours. Nbcs tom costello has been following the investigation since day one. Good morning, matt. Malaysian airlines sent an email to the families of flight 370. Here is what they say. We deeply regret we have to assume beyond all reasonable doubt that flight 370 has been lost and none on board has surviv survived. We must state that all has been lost in the southern indian ocean. This is the evidence from the pings from the satellite data. That is suggesting that the plane made its way down to the southern zone. In last 24 hours, chinese authorities said their aircraft spotted debris outside of the zone. They are not sure if it is from the flight. The Australian Air force said they spotted debris inside the zone. Again, not sure it is from the flight. Naval units are on the way to check out both of the sightings. The truth is, they dont know if for if any of that debris is from flight 370. They are seeing so much starting to see so much evidence that would suggest that maybe something did happen in that southern search zone and southern quadrant. The question is what was the condition of the aircraft when it went in. We talked to experts that the plane would have gone into a steep decline. About an 8 to 10 decline rate and hitting 300 miles per hour. If that were the case, it is unlikely anybody could survive out in the indian ocean. Guys, back to you. Tom costello, thank you. They are assuming the plane went into the southern indian ocean. They have not said if they got their hands on the debris that has been positively identified from flight 370. Apparently this conclusion is based on the satellite Images Available made to malaysian authorities. They took a dramatic step sending a message to the family of the people on the flight. They conclude the flight is gone and all on board are lessing stadium. We have keir simmons in kuala lumpur. What can you tell us . Good morning. Reporter savannah, it is difficult to put into words what we just watched here. Behind me, you can see some journalists, but a gathering of some families who have loved ones on flight 370. They just sat quietly here watching the Prime Minister make his statement. A really noble show of grace by them to be honestly. They were stern faced watching trans fixed by what the Prime Minister had to say. Of course, to remember what they are watching is the Prime Minister making announcement that relates to their son, their 29yearold son on flight 370 heading too beijing. A son who has a daughter and a wife and they just had to sit here and watch this and as you were hearing early early, we saw here at this hotel where the families are staying. We saw them in the build up to this on their phones receiving that text message and email to let them know this news was going to happen. I guess the malaysians have said they want to try to keep the families informed, but stunning for them to get a text message or an email telling them that news as tom said, the text message we are told to the chinese families said we deeply regreet we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that mh370 is lost and none of those on board has survived. It is difficult to see here. The families watching and hearing the Prime Minister making that announcement on television. Guys. Keir simmons, thank you. Lets go to bob hager who followed nbc news for 25 years. The Authorities Say this is in the southern indivisiblan ocean. How do you prevent this from happening again . What we dont know is why he said that. I assume that means they made a positive identification of one of the pieces of wreckage. That is just the beginning of it. You really need these black boxes to tell you what went on in the airplane. To have a chance to find the black boxes which are pinging now for 13 more days. You have to get a piece of the wreckage. You have the tow the device from behind the ship. At a low speed. The pinger will last a bit longer. If you get the ping here is the towed ping locator device. Yeah. If you hear the ping, that will tell you to zero in on where it is on the floor of the ocean. You have to drop a nonmanned sub. Six or seven feet, with a camera in it and look and see if you can see it. You talk about the depths of the southern indian ocean can be anywhere from a couple of thousand feet up to 16,000 feet. Very difficult job. With the passage of this kind of time, nothing bad coming out about that cockpit crew so far. You have to go back. You cannot eliminate completely as they do in the early days the idea of mechanical problem causing this. Yet, why, though, wouldnt that crew issue a may day call . We speculative. If it was smoke or Something Like that, one of the things you do in smoke, you shutdown the Electrical Equipment and put the things back on one fuse at a time to locate the trouble. So, that would explain cutting all communications. It is a possible scenario. You cannot eliminate anything because we know so little. You stick with us for a while. We turn to bill neely. He is in perth, australia. He is aware of the search 1,500 miles off the coast of perth. Bill, you were on a plane as it searched this morning. Bill, good morning to you. Reporter good morning. I stepped off that u. S. Navy plane. It was a very dramatic day indeed. We were about six hours into the flight when suddenly the crew got a call to divert immediately because of two possible sightings of debris. We diverted south and we spent a very intense 30 or 40 minutes searching for debris. This boeing plane descended to 200 feet above the water. We really were skimming the indian ocean searching for the debris. Five radar operators, video camera underneath the plane giving them a continuous video feed. Spotters on either side of the plane and they tried and tried, but the visibility was appalling. There was so much sea fog even at 200 feet for most of the time, you could not actually see the ocean. We crossed over the debris field twice and they knew something was there because they were getting pings on the radar. Confirmed pings. Two or three of something in the water, but they simply could not see it. They were very frustrated indeed. They consider their mission a success because they had cleared a lot of area where they had been told to search. That was a very intense day on board that plane. A tenhour operation. They flew the lowest they have ever flown and the longest time in the search area. Bill neely in perth, australia this morning. As we turn to bob hager, gathering what was said in the News Conference this morning, it sounds like it is new satellite images to conclude that the plane went down in the southern indian ocean. We are not hearing they positively identified debris. What do you make of that . The pings are clearly something in the water. He is talking about the radar looking down from the plane and finding something in the water. That is nothing to do with the pings from the black boxes. Given what you know about what might have happened at the end of the flight, it going down at whatever angle into the water as tom costello said at 300 miles per hour. You have covered a lot of these types of crashes. What happens to the fuselage of the plane when it impacts the water at that speed . At that speed, it breaks up a lot. You get the light stuff that floats. That could be wings, skin of the fuselage. Things like that. But the strong parts of the plane is where the wings and fuselage cross. That is big and heavy. That goes down with large sections of the fuselage pretty much to the bottom right away. That and the tail is heavy. The tail is where the black boxes are. Heavy and strong sturucturally. It is the biggest impact where you need for the investigation. One of the most perplexing aspects of this from the beginning has been that abrupt turn. That is the piece that doesnt fit. Absolutely. And we cant decide whether or not this is something intentional or some kind of accident. It continues to elude authorities. You could say that if there was some onboard emergency, to try to turn the plane around to go for the nearest airport on the other side of the peninsula or back to kuala lumpur, Something Like that, that they put that in. If the radio was still operative, they did not have time because they were dealing with an emergency to do it. Or, conversely, if it is an issue with the humans in the cockpit, you know, they could have had a fight going on in the cockpit and they dont have time to say anything on the radio. They may have been trying to turn the plane back to kuala lumpur or another airport. Keep in mind weather playing a factor as bill neely mentioned. They are going from summer into fall in the southern hemisphere. Visibility is down to basically nothing. They have to get a ship out there before they can make a definitive identification. You could not pick a more impossible place. They have located things after a long time, air france, we know was a couple of years. A black box in the med down for nine years and they found it. They will this too. That concludes the special report. That and more ahead all day long on nbc. Were back now on today. We have breaking news on the mudslide in washington state. The death toll has climbed to eight people overnight. Take a look at the photograph. This shows the area before the mudslide occurred. There had been slides in the past smaller slides. Now we can take a look at the after picture. An entire area has been swept out. Mud encompassing enormous area. Eight people have died. Rescue crews are trying to find survivors. Roads washed out. We have Miguel Almaguer with more in oso. Reporter matt, good morning. As soon as the sun rises here, rescue teams will once again scour the debris field. Ago he mefrks ras you mentioned eight people are dead. More of those could climb today. This is what rescue teams face today. A wave of mud 20 feet deep. One square mile of rocks, tree and debris. Here in the rubble is where the search grows more desperate. The conditions are very, very muddy in places, it is still like quick sand. We werent able to search the entire debris field. This is a major slide. Theres houses on to, down into the main road. Reporter triggered saturday by a rainsoaked mountain, a massive chunk of hillside suddenly gave way. There was no warning, nowhere to run. The torrent of mud crushed 30 homes and swept over cars. Pleas for help could be heard for 12 hours. Were hearing cries, possibly a child. Rescue teams pulled a 6monthold boy and six others from the mud alive. The voices theyre hearing are literally encased in 20 foot of mud. Greg regelbrugges brother john and sisterinlaw chris are among those missing. If someone can survive, its him. Reporter on social media, the faces and stories of those who vanished are being shared by their families. Loved ones both young and old. Reed miller tries his son joseph every hour. At the tone, please record your message. He fears hell never see him again. I just kind of picture the house being ripped up and him in there. Reporter this morning, the mudslide is over. But for families, the pain has just begun. Though, authorities do fear that the death toll here will rise. They say there is one piece of good news. There was fears of catastrophic flooding, but those fears have diminished. Matt. Miguel, thank you very much. We have more news from tamron. President obama is in netherlands with the g7 summit. We have Peter Alexander in the netherlands with more. Peter, good morning. Reporter tamron, good day. President obama arrived this morning for the first of the tour. The first will take place a matter of hours from now. That is hastily added meeting with the g7 leaders. New urgency information the meeting as they discuss the situation in ukraine. A short time ago, we heard from president obama. He said the u. S. And europe are united in the costs on russia. The issue is how strong the costs will be and how far the european leaders will go with the trade partners. President obama said despite the takeover the crimea, he doesnt want europe a Battle Ground between east and west. That thinking should have ended with the cold war. Tamron. Thank you. A Big Oil Spill in one of the nations most vital shipping lanes and threatening wildlife. We have nbcs Janet Shamlian in galveston, texas. Reporter good morning. This is a problem that is growing larger by the hour. We have cruise ships stuck if port. The oil has swamped a preserve. They are finding oil and birds. This for the third day, has shutdown one of the biggest shipping channels in the world. There is no timeline on when it will open. The oil has been spotted as far as 12 miles offshore. Authorities are skimming it, but it will take a long time. Tamron. Janet, thank you very much. 7 19. Matt and savannah. A lot going on. Mr. Roker. The pacific west will be looking at more heavy rain in that area. 60 miles to the northeast of seattle. As that rain comes in, you can see over the next 24 hours, it will come down heavy where they do not need this. Unfortunately, they are looking at least 1 inch of rain over the next 48 hours. That is probably going to hamper rescue efforts there. Around the rest of the country today, we are looking for sunny skies in the northeast. Rain in the gulf coast. Discover card. Hey there, i just got my bill, and i see that it includes my fico® credit score. Is that new . Yup, you have our discover it card, so you get your fico® score on every statement. And, its free. Thats pretty cool of you guys. Well, we just want to help you stay on top of your credit and avoid surprises. Good. I hate surprises. Surprise whoa. Is it your birthday . Yep. Cheers. At discover, we treat you like youd treat you. Free fico® credit score. Get the it card at discover. Com. 7 21. Happy monday to you. Im meteorologist christina loren. This is the Golden Gate Bridge though its hard to see that red. You can see the top and bottom of that bridge. Were looking really good out there this morning. Nice and clear, not a lot of low cloud cover. Its going to be warm with temperatures up in the upper 70s just about everywhere, upper 60s today in San Francisco, you are the one exception to the rule. Rain tomorrow morning. Keep that in mind. Its our last warm dry day. And thats your latest weather. Al, thank you. Coming up, big news from the Oscar Pistorius trial. Did a key witness hear the screams of a woman or a man . The crucial testimony from this morning. Plus, a harrowing ordeal leads to a recue. Coming up on trending kevin bacon relives his footloose days with a little [ male announcer ] let the rich robust flavor and irresistible aroma of Nescafe Clasico stir whats inside of you. [ engine revving ] [ tires screech ] [ male announcer ] that was bold. Real bold. So why do they often act so naughty . Shoes should feel nice. Grrr. Ooh its time to tame the shoe with dreamwalk ultraslim insoles. Grrr. So you can wear the shoes youre in the mood for. Without them changing your mood. Dreamwalk by dr. Scholls. [ chuckles ] isnt easter fun, red . [ grunts ] not from my perspective a very good morning to you. 7 26. Im laura garciacannon. Investigators spent the night picking through evidence in San Franciscos tenderloin neighborhood after a shooting injured seven. All the victims were taken to San Francisco general. None of the injuries are considered life threatening. Most of the people were shot in arms and legs. The fight broke out near turk and taylor streets about 9 00 last night. Investigators hope Surveillance Video and witnesses help them figure out what happened. San jose Police Officer accused of raping a woman could enter a plea. Jeffrey graves was arrested. Investigators say he forced his way into a hotel room and raped a woman. Hours earlier graves and other officers were called to her house. She wanted to spend the night at a hotel so graves dropped her off at one. The detectives say he later returned and sexually assaulted her. Lets check the forecast now with meteorologist christina