And dangerous dilemma. The drama caught on camera as familys car catches fire. Inside the lion enclosure at a safari park. The decision that saved their lives today, monday, april 21st, 2014. Announcer from nbc news, this is today. With matt lauer and savannah guthrie, live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. And good morning. Welcome to today on a monday morning. Welcome back from vacation. Back from vacation. In for savannah. In for natalie. That means youll bat fourth in the next inning. And youll move to right field. Im running the marathon. Yeah, exactly right. Good to have you all here. What about that story about that family in the safari park . Unbelievable. Can you imagine . I cant imagine. So why did i ask if you can . The bad news is your car is on fire. The worst news, the lion what could be worse . Were going to tell you more about that. We want to get right to our top story. Its an emotional day in boston for this mornings running of the Boston Marathon. Its the second largest field in the races 118year history, and as we said, natalie is taking part. Shes in hopkinton this morning near the starting line. Natalie, good morning to you. Good morning to you, matt. As you can imagine as the runners start to arrive here, a lot of excitement, a lot of energy. Emotions and security at alltime highs here. But meanwhile, as you can imagine, people just gearing up, getting ready for the race of a lifetime. Many saying this is the time to take the marathon back and to prove to the world what it means to be boston strong. By the numbers, this will be the largest and most advanced security presence in Boston Marathon history. 3,500 Law Enforcement officers, twice as many as last year. 40 checkpoints in boston alone, as well as over 100 security cameras feeding back to the mobile command center for the massachusetts state police. The technology is newer in here. The capability is obviously better. The communications are seamless. A massive, highly coordinated effort so that the focus of the day returns to the marathon itself and those competing in it. Im here at the Boston Marathon expo, where i just got my official entry, and for many of the runners here, emotions and spirits are high. Many saying theyre looking forward to creating new memories and putting the tragic events of last year behind them. Im really excited to be here. And this is a great city and a great race. After the tragedy last year, i just felt like it just wasnt complete, so i wanted to come back and try it again. Theres so much emotion out there. The right reasons to really celebrate the sport, celebrate the city. Police commissioner William Evans is an expert on both the security and the spirit, having completed this marathon 18 times. For him, the last year has been about the city recovering. Today is about how boston responds. My heart and soul is into this race. It always has been. And thats why its so important that we come back and show how resilient we are and how strong this city is. And on the eve of the marathon, a touching tribute at fenway park last night, as the red sox held an emotional ceremony honoring the victims, the survivors, including among them jeff bauman, and the man who helped save his life, carlos arredondo. A fitting win as well last night for them, the red sox went on to win 65 beating the orioles. Just a quick update, i know youve been nursing an injury over the last couple weeks. How you feeling before the race . Im feeling good. I know that the crowd and the support along the way is going to get me through it. And of course, the emotions of today i think are just going to push me through that extra couple of miles at the end, matt. Were rooting for you. Well check in with you a little later. Thank you. Now to a remarkable story overnight. A 16yearold lucky to be alive after stowing away in the wheel well of a flight from california to hawaii. Nbcs Pete Williams has more. Pete, good morning. Reporter tamron, good morning. The fbi says his survival on the long flight to maui is miraculous, given the High Altitude and frigid cold. They say he was running away from home and stowed away on the plane with no clue where it was going. Authorities say the 16yearold from santa clara, california, hopped a fence at the san jose airport, then climbed into the wheel well of Hawaiian Airlines flight 45, but they say he had no idea where the plane was headed. The boeing 767 jet left shortly after 8 00 a. M. Sunday in san jose and landed in kahului on the island of maui more than five hours later. Another hour after the arrival, the fbi says a witness saw the 16yearold hop down from the wheel well. The Authorities Say he was unconscious for most of the flight, which reached an altitude of 38,000 feet with freezing temperatures. Within a few minutes up at that altitude, the person would pass out. Usually, they would not survive for, you know, hours on end up there. So it just boggles the mind. Reporter Officials Say the boy was found by airport workers. He was carrying only a comb for his hair. The maui News Agency Says this picture shows him on a gurney being taken to the hospital. He looked pretty good from what i could see. You know, again, young juvenile. Didnt appear to be dirty or all greased up from being in a wheel well. Reporter Authorities Say the boy claims he got into an argument with his family and ran away from home. Hawaiian airlines issued a statement saying, our primary concern now is for the wellbeing of the boy, who is exceptionally lucky to have survived. No charges have been filed so far. He cleared a medical checkup and has been turned over to hawaiis Child Welfare department. And now the fbi is looking into how he managed to breach Airport Security in san jose in the first place. Tamron . Incredible story, pete. Thank you very much. Meantime, we have new developments this morning on the tragic ferry disaster off the south korean coast. Divers have now removed dozens of bodies from that ship. And south koreas president is blasting the captain and crew for committing what she calls murderous acts. Nbcs bill neely is in south korea with the latest. Bill, good morning. Reporter good morning, tamron. An extraordinary statement here from south koreas president condemning the captain and siding firmly with the families and calling for justice. Meanwhile, the number of bodies recovered from the ship is rising all the time. A recovery operation i saw for myself close up today. South koreas President Park didnt hold back in her criticism of the ships crew. The action of the captain and some of the crew was incomprehensible, she said. It was like murder and cannot be tolerated. The captain was one of the first to get off the ship and to receive medical help. Hes been charged with criminal negligence. Three further crew members are now being questioned. This was the captain four years ago promoting the same journey. Its safe, he says, as long as you follow the crews directions. Those who did on this ship are still trapped inside it. A massive recovery operation now making slow, grim progress. The ship is directly below us here, one end marked by those creamcolored buoys. There are dozens of divers working in teams inside the passenger area now, trying to bring the bodies through the ship and up on to the surface. The ferry is completely flooded. They say there are no air pockets and they think there are no survivors. One by one, they bring ashore the 16 and 17yearold students. Somebodys daughter. Somebodys son. A national trauma. And a national scandal. The president s criticism of the crew piling even more pressure on the authorities to get to the truth of what exactly happened here. Back to you, tamron. All right, bill, thank you very much. This is day 45 in the hunt for malaysia Airlines Flight 370. For an eighth time, a robotic submarine scanning the search area has come up empty, and passengers relatives are again voicing frustration after meeting with some officials over the weekend. Nbcs katy tur is in perth, australia. Katy, good morning to you. Reporter good morning, matt. Bluefin21 is right now on its ninth dive. So far it scanned about 2 3 of the underwater search zone with nothing to show for it. This as Officials Say that right now, they are at a very critical juncture. By the end of this week, searchers say they will be done mapping out the underwater area where they think the plane is located, based on those four acoustic signals heard more than 13 days ago. Those pings went silent last week. Still, experts say that investigations like this are constantly evolving. We have to remember that in the search for air france 447, it took them 18 missions to finally find the wreckage of that airplane. They found it ten kilometers away from where they thought it was. And they knew exactly where that plane crashed on the surface. Reporter as it stands, the location of mh370 is just an educated guess. A frustrating reality for family members. You havent been searching in the right place, said this man at a meeting with malaysian officials in beijing. In an open letter, loved ones of the 239 passengers wrote, we are in utter outrage, despair, and shock. Day 45 and they say their concerns have yet to be addressed. Namely, why there has never been any independent peer review of the data. And why they would accept a Single Source for analysis on where the plane likely went down. Now, if they dont find anything by the end of this week, Officials Say they will need to regroup, reconsider, and decide how to move forward, potentially even reconsider their entire search plan for this plane, matt. Katy tur, thanks very much. A little earlier this morning, i talked to sarah bajc and lee lee who had loved ones on flight 370 and i asked them about officials claims that the search has reached a critical juncture and what they were told about that. I think they make statements like that just to tee up the ability to put passengers in their coffins as quickly as possible. He says its critical, so when nothings found, he can say oh, we did our best. But we just dont believe that theyre using proper evaluative techniques to check the data. So, you know, we all want to go back to square one. Its day 45. We are basically at the same position we were on on the first day. We dont know anything for sure. So we want to go back and start over again. But with new people looking at the information. And let me just read one of the lines from the email you sent to the media. This was on the subject of compensation and this investigation. You say, until they have proof, they have an obligation to make regular prepayments to the families in need, and they have an obligation to exert themselves beyond dozing and snickering in resolving this case. That is a pretty strong indictment of what they are doing. You believe that . Unproductive. Yeah, very unproductive. Its just a show, right . So that they can say that they briefed the family members. But they really arent, and theyre breaking all of the rules. So, you know, one of the obligations of Malaysian Airlines is to brief all family members on all information before its released to the public. Yet they consistently dont do that. So, for instance, i understood what was happening in the malaysian meeting just because i have friends there. I was never notified of anything. And when i asked for a transcript, i dont get it. So, you know, again, we want to come back to taking this investigation away from the malaysian government. We believe its been mishandled. And as a group of family members, we are gaining strength. So we want them to know that we are not going to go away. And until they agree to pursue this more independently in a way we can feel confident in, were going to get noisier and noisier. Sarah bajc and lee lee. Ladies, thank you very much for your time this morning, i appreciate it. Thank you, matt. Thank you, matt. With natalie in boston, will is here with the mornings other top stories, including an accident in florida. Yeah, really scary moment here. Frightening scene in florida on sunday night. A car plows into a church packed full of people during easter services. It happened in ft. Myers at the second baptist haitian church. At least 21 people hurt. Officials, thank goodness, say none of those injuries are lifethreatening. The driver says the brakes malfunctioned. She was pulling into a parking lot. A weekend of gun violence in chicago leaves nine people dead and 32 others hurt. The latest shooting happened around 7 30 on sunday night. A group of kids were leaving a park near an Elementary School when someone pulled up in a car and asked them a question. The group fled but some in the car opened fire, hitting five of them. The victims range in age from 11 to 15. One of them is in critical condition. Vice President Joe Biden is in ukraine today for two days of meetings after more deadly violence erupted over the weekend. At least three people were killed during a shootout at a prorussian check point. This despite a truce agreement aimed at easing tensions. Now theres word the u. S. Is sending 150 soldiers to Training Exercise in nearby poland and astonia to reassure nato allies the u. S. Will support them. If russia tries to take over parts of eastern ukraine. Sherpa guides on mt. Everest are boycotting now after the single deadliest incident in the mountains history. At least 13 sherpa guides died in an avalanche friday, and the search has ended for three others still missing. Several guides have called for the mountain to be closed to expeditions during climbing season as a mark of respect for the dead. A meteorite lit up the night sky in russia this weekend. Look at that. This captured on dash cam in the town of dmatstk. Russian Officials Say there were no emergency calls or damage reported. Now, this is the story we were talking about earlier. A family getting a lot more than it bargained for at a safari park in england. Another park visitor captured this on camera. You can see a minivan engulfed in smoke and flames. Helen clements and her two kids were driving through the lion enclosure, when the vehicle started to smoke. When they got out of the van, rangers told them to get back in, but the rangers quickly swooped in to rescue the woman and her two children. I think you look at the funny side of it now. It is unbelievable. I think if it was near the flamingos, we wouldnt have had the problem, but its because its in the lion enclosure. Wow, good spirits. Clements says they wont be going on any more adventures in the near future. The workers in the park say the smoke and the fire distracted the lions long enough. They were focused on that and not the people. They were able to get them out of there. Its your worst nightmare. Oh, my gosh. And i love they said go back in the car. No, its on fire, its on fire dont you understand . You have to choose. All right, willie, thank you very much. 36,000 of your friends are wondering about the weather in boston today. Oh man, it is perfect for patriots day. Everybody out there, bostonstrong. Take a look at this day. We have got a gorgeous one. Starting off in hopkinton, you can see gorgeous weather there. At the finish line, Downtown Boston spectacular. 52, sunshine, winds out of the south. 60 by 4 00. 63 degrees. You cannot ask for a better day. Rest of the country, weve got some strong storms going to be firing up. Were going to look at these in detail in the next halfhour. Another system bringing rain into the Pacific Northwest. High surf advisory from the gulf coast. Wet weather making its way into the gulf coast. Gorgeous weather up and down the eastern seaboard. Were going to get to your local forecast coming up in the next 30 seconds. Those are the rules. Ok who wants sweet rolls . I do me too are those kings hawaiian rolls . Thanks, carol people go pupule for the sweet, fluffy deliciousness of kings hawaiian. Find us in the deli or instore bakery. Is levy using our clippers . And thats your latest weather. Terrible allergy season right now, because this one is complaining a lot. I have a hanky for my runny eyes, a hanky for my runny nose. You need a bubble. We need surgical masks. Im not contagious. Dylan is here for carson in the orange room. A lot of people talking about the marathon. Absolutely talking about the marathon. Its patriots day. 36,000 people will be running in the race today. The boston globe has done something really cool on their website. You can check out all the details of who is running the race. You can check out which countries are represented. You can see whos running from your own hometown, and one thing we thought was really cool is you can see exactly the names of the people running and just how well represented your name is. There are 747 michaels running. 396 jennifers. We know of one natalie running and apparently there are 45 others. So we are cheering them on. So much goes into preparing for Something Like the marathon, and everyone showing off their gear this morning, their race kits, and rightfully so, because they are getting ready. The elite runners start in about an hour or so. And not to be outdone, natalie has posted this picture, ready for Boston Marathon, ill be the one in bright orange. How do you like that, orange room . We absolutely love it. With the gonataliego. That is the hash tag we will use to cheer natalie on. Savannah has already sent in her words of encouragement to natalie. If theres one person i know who has the heart, passion and tolerance for pain to do Boston Marathon, its natalie morales. So send in your encouragement to natalie. All the runners in the race today with the bostonstrong. People have been anticipating this. They are excited for today. Theyve been waiting for it all year. So we are going to see this im sure trending at some point today on twitter, instagram, facebook. Everything is going to go wild today, guys. All right, dylan. We do root natalie on. Meanwhile, coming up today, the gutsy teenager who asked miss america to the prom and got suspended from school because of it. However, he is a hero among his friends. Why did that happen . Was it fair . Well talk to him live. Oh boy. Plus, if you witness a crime, could you trust your memory to i