Paris hiltons brother arrested accused of threatening to kill the crew and calling passengers peasants before be restrained. His explanation today, wednesday, february 4, 2015. Announcer from nbc news, this is today with matt lauer and Savannah Guthrie live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Good morning. Welcome to today on a wednesday morning. Matts on assignment. Well tell you more about that later. What a scary situation, this commuter train so many people ride on it to the suburbs every day. Heartbreaking what happened. Our top story. A deadly collision between a commuter train and an suv. This happened north of new york city and the impact triggered a huge explosion. Nbcs kate snow is at the scene for us. Kate, good morning. Reporter good morning, savannah. Federal investigators on the way here now. This is the most deadly accident ever on this railroad. You can see the burned out car behind me there, there were more than 600 passengers on board, as it slammed into a car stuck on the tracks. A twisted heap of metal and glass, all that remains of an suv after it collided with a metro north commuter train from new york city bound for the northern suburbs. Officials say as the commuter train traveled north a black jeep drove onto the track, the crossing gates came down on the suv and the driver got out stew look for damage, then got back in and tried to drive off, but was stuck when the train hit her. The train pushed the suv the length of more than a football field, the impact causing the vehicle to explode in flames, the trains front car caught fire and was pierced by the electrified third rail. The driver of the suv was killed and so were five passengers apoord the train as the smoke spread through the train cars, passengers scrambled to get off. Cut my hand. I bashed the glass and slid the door open. Then we started climbing off. Reporter people in the second car tried to help those in the front car. We could not get the head cars door open for some reason. Were trying to break the glass to no avail. Seemed like some of the people in the head car got out, it seemed maybe they broke the window or something. Reporter most rescued themselves. One tweeting have now left scene. Just want to go home and hug wife and kids. You never know what tomorrow will bring, folks. The last major crash involving this line in december 2013 when a speeding train flew off the rails on a curve killing four. That accident blamed on a train engineer with a sleeping disorder. Overnight new York Governor Andrew Cuomo spoke at the scene of this crash. Its a painful reminder to all of us how precious life is and sometimes how random it can be. Reporter as emergency crews worked into the early morning, their lights cast long shadows among the grave stones of a neighboring cemetery, a fresh tragedy with few answers. The governor also said given what he saw here last night and all of the devastation he is surprised there werent more casualties. Carson, this is a train thats come under scrutiny in the past from federal investigators, they had several accidents over the last few years. Kate snow on the scene. Thank you. Debra is the president and sew of the Safety Council and former chair of the ntsb. Ntsb beginning their investigation this morning. What is first on their list at the scene . They will arrive and begin to gather the perishable evidence. They want to focus on things that might go away in time, but they will be gathering recorders from the trains, any video that might be in the vicinity, and talking to eyewitnesss. Tell me more about the recorders. What kind of on commuter trains and what will they learn . You know, with the recorders generally what they have is recorders that will identify speed, direction, throttle position, braking, if any bells or whistles were put up. But also we might be looking for video, any video footage, either at or near the crossing or on board the locomotive. Obviously theres a lot of people in the vicinity and so we might actually have witnesses to provide video to the investigative team. The fact that electrified third rail pierced that first car in the floor, how much devastation could that have done all by itself . I think we have to look at the mechanics of this crash, certainly the fire was a huge factor when it comes to the time that the passengers had to evacuate. But you want to identify all of the causes of damage so you can identify ways to have more robust, better crash worthy train cars in the future. Were not sure what happened to the jeep cherokee, but for people watching, you get to a crossing of a train, you see the flashing lights, what do you do . You have got to stop and youve got to give plenty of time. We see about 2,000 crashes at grade crossing every year that result in 250 fatalities. This happens too often and unfortunately, if cars get on the tracks and the gates come down, its a dangerous position to be in. You always want to make sure before you enter a grade crossing that you can completely clear the tracks on the other side when theres traffic in the roadway, you have to pay special attention. Good advice there. Thank you very much. We move to a devastating passenger plane accident overseas caught on dash cam video. Watch this. A Transasia Airways jet plunging into a river in taiwan. The crash triggering a major rescue operation. Ian williams has the latest for us. Good morning. Reporter good morning, savannah. The latest were hearing from taiwan aviation officials is that 23 people are now conirm iffed dead, and 20 still missing. That aircraft cartwheeling into a taipei river. This dramatic dash cam video appears to show the last moments of the transasia flight. The aircraft clipping a roadway before crashing in the shallow river below. Emergency rescue teams soon converged on the partly submerged fuselage, belly up in the water, 58 passengers and crew trapped. Debris was scattered. One of the first to be pulled from the crippled plane was a small child. One of two believed to be on board. The french built atr 72 turboprop was nine months old. 31 mainland chinese were among the passengers. It had just taken off from the smaller of two airports on a short flight. It lost contact shortly before 11 in what had been a stormy morning. Though it had been relatively clear at the time of takeoff, local television showed the damage to the overpass. The aircraft appeared to just barely miss apartment buildings. Though its not clear whether the pilot deliberately steered the stricken plane in the river in attempt to avoid greater disaster. Transasia is taiwans Third Largest carrier, its second disaster in six months. Another crashed last july killing 48 people. Its dark now, evening time in taipei. The search is continuing with divers under flood lights. The river there is shallow so they have quickly found the black boxes which should determine enable them to determine precisely what did go wrong. Back to you. Ewan william, thank you. The group isis followed through on its threats to murder a captured Jordanian Air force pilot. Jordan responded executing two including a convicted terrorist whose release isis demanded. Nbcs Richard Engel has more. Good morning. Reporter good morning, carson. The jordanian King Abdullah who cut short his visit to washington has now returned to his home country. The jordanian king is a very close u. S. Ally, in jordan and across the muslim world, there have been condemnations today of isis, and revulsion at its brutality. Crowds of supporters gathered this morning to welcome home their king and demand that he exact revenge. Already before sunrise, jordan executed two islamic militants who had long been on death row. Including this woman, Sajida Al Rishawi who isis was trying to trade for the life of the jordanian pilot, 26yearold Muath Al Kaseasbeh captured by isis when he ejected from his f16 on Christmas Eve on a mission in the u. S. Led war. Yesterday, isis released this video shocking even by its own standards, with images of the pilot being burned alive in a cage. President obama who met with King Abdullah after the video was released promised action. I think well redouble the vigilant and determination on the part of a Global Coalition to make sure that they are degraded and ultimately defeated. Reporter across jordan there is now disgust and anger over the fate of the fallen pilot. They are murderers said the pilots father, they do not understand human law or i want national law or that of prisoners. I ask the government to avenge the blood of our homeland. Jordan is expected to expedite the execution of up to four more islamic radicals on death row and promised to deliver an earth shaking response presumably in the renewed air strikes on isis. There is growing concern for the fate of the last known american hostage in isis hands, a 26yearold woman who was working for an Aid Organization to help syrian refugees. At her familys request were not releasing the name or hometown or even the charity that american aid worker was working for when she was taken hostage. One potentially positive note, however, isis has so far not made any videos that it has released to the public of the american hostage, or made any known demands. Richard engel, thank you. Lets turn to mike, he served as director of the Counterterrorism Center under president s bush and obama, now executive working with the federal government on National Security matters. Good morning to you. I have to say its impossible to overstate how gruesome, savage and cruel this video is, and i hate to even give it more attention except to ask the question, what is behind taking this level of barbarity to the next sflefl what do you think isis is trying to do . Isis is trying to fracture the coalition that its helping the u. S. And west countries like jordan. Isis main enme is the west. Along side in some ways even worse are regimes like King Abdullah in jorden. In isis view the this is muslims fighting against muslims and thats horrific and he is a sham leader so they hope, i think, to fracture this coalition and i think they are going to do the opposite. That leads me to the question how does this play in jordan . You mentioned their involve it in the u. S. Led coalition has been controversial, not everybody in jordan supported it. But do you think seeing what happened to their national hero, this pilot, might double their resolve . Absolutely. There was a vocal minority that was starting to oppose jordans involvement and i think it will swing exactly the opposite direction. Jordan will be more committed and i think this will make sure that the u. S. Stays firmly behind jordan which really does need u. S. Military and Financial Support to face whats going on in syria and iraq. Quickly we talked about the American Woman currently held, mike. The president in our interview on sunday said everything is being done to try to help her but just put it in perspective how difficult its, how limited the options are. It is so hard. We had Great Success with bin laden and other missions but this is extremely difficult. We have few friends on the ground, each for our best special operators this is a very mighty task. It is a dark day indeed. Thank you. Right now natalie with new developments on the boston bombing case. Defense attorneys in the Boston Marathon bombing trial have not given up trying to get a judge to move the trial out of massachusetts. They asked to have jury selection suspended. On tuesday Dzhokhar Tsarnaevs lawyer argued that its clear that many people already believe their climate is guilty. Its the defenses teams third motion to try to relocate the trial. In health news a break through may be on the horlz for patients who suffer from an aggressive type of Breast Cancer known as triple negative. Researchers at the mayo clinic in jacksonville plan to begin Clinical Trials for a vaccine that may prevent disease from coming back after a patient has been treated. Triple negative Breast Cancer strikes 15 to 20 of Breast Cancer patients. It cannot be treated with estrogen blockers. The coast guard braved frigid conditions to pull a dog out of an icy channel connected to lake michigan. See the labrador happened to fall in close to the coast guard stations. They saw it happen and jumped into action. The dog was about 200 feet into the channel that was covered in loose ice. The lab was not wearing a collar. The owners were located. Thats a lucky day for that dog. Doesnt get easier than this. Able inmate back in custody after escaping from a North Carolina prison simply by walking out the front door. Security video add the sound effects, shows William Earl Hewitt walking through, once outside he shed the coat and sprimts for the woods. This was an elaborate plan. He posed as his brother set for release that day and Police Caught him five days later. His brother also in trouble. As you can imagine. As for the jail guards one of the guards has been fired. Unbelievable. It happens. All right, natalie, thank you. I saw that on the dukes of hazzard. Didnt chase them though. Thats the difference. We have good news to talk about. We will get to that in a second. Not a lot of great news temperaturewise. This frontal system will bring a light clipper of one to three inches throughout the northeast, but the big thing is that it will drop these temperatures. We also have wet weather making its way through the south from new orleans. We have wet weather and West Palm Beach looking at cloudy skies and showers and look at the rainfall amounts. Were talking about anywhere from one to two inches of rain. Throughout central florida. Well continue to track that as well. The rest of the country, there is the swath of snow from the dakotas into the northeast and wet weather to the southeast. There will be a series of storms into the Pacific Northwest dumping a lot of rain. We will get to your local forecast coming up in the next 30 seconds. Ch time i tell myself that i, well i think ive had enough im sorry dad. But im gonna show you, baby that a woman can be tough. I want you to come on, come on come on, come on and take it take another little piece of my heart now, baby miss dior, by christian dior. Good morning to you. Im meteorologist christina loren. A beautiful sunrise here over san jose. Were seeing a lot of spectacular color out there. Heres pacifica. I want to sew you sunol, where we have the pinks and oranges coming in. You will encounter some fog this morning, especially in the north bail. Highs today comfortable. 70 degrees in the south bay. 67 degrees on the peninsula, but noticeably cooler than where we ended up yesterday and we do have rain on the way as we head throughout your thursday into friday, saturday and sunday. More on this in just moments. And thats your latest weather. Tamron we are talking about a frontier in fertility treatment. Its a medical breakthrough and a real topic. They passed what is being called the threeparent bill that allows the use of dna from three different people to make a baby. Obviously there could be benefits and the ability to prevent diseases but it has many people asking when enough is enough in terms of medical intervention. We are asking you to question this morning. Should people be allowed to create threeparent babies. A simple yes or no from you, we would appreciate it. Lauren said why not let biology happen naturally the way its supposed to . We have another response. If you understand the reasons why they are doing it its a great idea. Carry on. Many people had this reaction when ivf was introduced. When enough it enough. Let us know what you think. People worry about the slippery slope. This happens in a lab. Yes. Al. Just ahead we will turn serious and talk about the tragic train collision and there is a lot of concerns about train crossings and safety. Is hiltons youngest brother surrenders after threatening to kill crew members and what they claim was behind the midair melt down but first, this is today on nbc. 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