As it drifted toward restricted air face, emitting a sonic boom that prompted 911 calls from d. C. To maryland. The pilot unresponsive as the jets reportedly repeatedly tried to make contact. At least four now confirmed dead. What went wrong. An nbc news exclusive. The grand jury Hearing Evidence about former president trumps handling of classified documents is meeting again this week. Is that investigation nearing its conclusion . Also ahead, a big week in the 2024 race, three more republicans set to enter the alreadycrowded field. This after gop hopefuls roared into iowa for the traditional roast and ride, everyone, that, but donald trump. I dont know. Were not big trump fans. A lot of bluster. Some good ideas but a lot of bluster. Im a republican. Later, yet another close call with a chinese war machine. The encounter with an american destroyer thats ratcheting up tensions between the u. S. And china. Well begin with the new details out of virginia, no survivors from that crashed cessna. A sonic boom shaking the d. C. Area as two f16 fighter jets were scrambled when the private plane approached restricted d. C. Airspace late yesterday. The pilot unresponsive. The plane eventually crashing west of charlottesville as you can see in this exclusive video from wrc tv. Tom costello is in washington. Can you walk us through what happened and what we know about those four people that were on board . An absolute tragedy. The owner of the family says he lost his daughter, his granddaughter, a nanny on board and a pilot. We believe a veteran pilot with a lot of commercial hours. This caused an awful lot of craziness yesterday afternoon in d. C. As these fighter jets were scrambled. We all heard a sonic boom in d. C. That literally shook homes as they fighter jets scrambled to actually try to catch up with this runaway plane. Scrambled from Joint Base Andrews near washington sunday, two f16 fighter jets racing to intercept a private Cessna Citation jet approaching restricted d. C. Airspace. The air force pilots radioed the Cessna Pilots but got no response. This is an armed air defense Fighter Transmitting on 121. 5. You have been intercepted. On the ground, the sonic booms from the fighter jets rattled the greater d. C. Area, shaking hopes from annapolis, maryland, to northern virginia. The thunderous sounds so loud, concerned residents called 911. As the f16s approached the runaway plane, they could see the pilot appeared unresponsive. The plane had taken off from tennessee, headed to long island, new york, then did an unexplained 180, Turning South again as air Traffic Controllers tried unsuccessfully to raise the pilot and told other planes to stay away. Thats when the fighter jets were scrambled. If they were intercepting an aircraft that was doing 70 or 80 of the Speed Of Sound and needed to intercept that aircraft quickly, the only way to do it would be to go ahead and go supersonic to increase the closure rate on the target aircraft. They tried to use flares to get the pilots attention and continued flying the cessna as it flew over d. C. , then into virginia where it apparently ran out of fuel and crashed. Our nbc station, wrc, captured these images of the crash scene west of charlottesville. It was registered to a company in melbourne, florida. The owner says his daughter, grandchild, a nanny, and pilot were on board. Similar to the 1999 private plane crash that killed golf Stewart Payne stewart and five others. They became unresponsive after their plane lost oxygen pressure. In a similar situation, a pilot would have seconds to last. Youve got to be on oxygen in five seconds or youll begin to lose consciousness. To be clear, we dont know what caused this crew, this pilot to become incapacitated. Was it a lack of oxygen . We dont know. Norad says it did not shoot down the plane. The ntsb has an investigator on the scene. As you can see theres very little left of the wreckage. They will have to determine what happened on the plane based on the little evidence that survived. Ana. So sad, so unfortunate. Nothing they can do to try to save those people on board. Tom costello, thank you for that update. New developments into the investigation of former president Donald Trumps handling of classified documents. The grand jury Hearing Evidence about this capes is expected to meet again this week after a hiatus. We dont know whether prosecutors are prepared to seek an indictment at this point, but by all appearances, it appears Special Counsel jack smiths investigation is nearing its end. If he is indicted, trump would be the first president ever to be charged with a federal crime. Joining us now is nbc news senior Legal Correspondent laura jarrett, Danny Cevallos and barbara mcquade. Laura, walk us through what more you know. Its really a story of timing. After weeks of lots of frenzied activity at the courthouse in washington, d. C. , the grand jury went dark. The question is why. There are lots of reasons the prosecutors might be taking a break to reevaluate their evidence, maybe they heard something. Someone said something interesting, they warrant to bring someone back. We just dont know. Were not prepared to report about what exactly is going on there, but the timing is worth noting, and the fact theyre now come back this week after a lull is noteworthy. Whats your interpretation of this return, danny, the fact that the grand jury is coming back after the break . Is it an indication of a conclusion or a potential continuation of the investigation . Here is the challenge with grand juries and scheduling. Because everything is kept so secret, it could be true that the grand jury is wrapping up, they could begin convening to draft a report, a report that may charge nobody. It may be a report explaining why nobody was charged. Then theres always the possibility it could be something totally mundane, like a scheduling issue. Maybe one grand jury expires, the other comes in. There are many reasons why a grand jury may adjourn and reconvene later on. We have to keep that possibility open. Is it possible the walls are closing in or the end is near . Maybe. Theres nothing concrete about that right now. We have to leave open the possibility that this could be Business As Usual and that the end is not nye, that Something Else is coming, maybe not too soon. Barbara, we have talked a lot about the recording of trump talking about a document he supposedly took from the white house that has to do with iran. The New York Times reports that lawyers have been unable to find that document. If it is, in fact, missing, what are the legal implications here . I think there are two possibilities. It could be that this is a very sensitive document and its gone missing because trump has mishandled it, destroyed it, hidden it, concealed it, sold it, given it away. If so, thats a very Serious National Security concern, if it is what it purports to be, talking about attack plans for iran. It could also be that there was no such document. In that case i think its largely irrelevant. One of the important aspects of that call is that in it donald trump admits that he understands that classification rules. To me thats the larger significance of this reporting. He has maintained that he could declassify documents just by thinking about it, without communicating it to anyone. I think most of us realize thats nonsense. But because the law requires that you prove that he violated it willfully, that is, that he knew what he was doing was illegal, its important to show that he knew he could not declassify documents just by thinking about it. So this recording would seem to completely rebut that defense that he has put forward to date. But if the recording suggests one thing and then theres no physical evidence of what was discussed on that recording, if they havent been able to locate such a document, could it be hard to prove its existence . And could that actually benefit trump in some way . Only if the government tries to charge him with mishandling that particular document. My guess is if they arent able to find it or find it ever existed, they may not do that. So that piece of it might be something that is not of legal significance that can be used in the case against him, but that admission of his understanding of the Classification System i think is very valuable evidence. Real quick, barbara, i want to get your thoughts, too, on the grand jury reconvening and what it could or couldnt mean. All the things that laura and danny said are absolutely true. But heres one possible theory, just a theory. They last met may 5th, a period of quiet and now coming back. It could be that after the grand jury has done all its work, heard all the witnesses and testimony, jack smith would need time to put together a prosecution memo, submit that to Merrick Garland and get approval. Remember he can reject a recommendation by the Special Counsel if he finds its unwarranted by law or inappropriate under the Justice Department policies. I imagine that process would have taken a few weeks. It could be that he has now been given the green light and hes ready to go back and present an indictment to the grand jury. Guys, i want to play something that trumps former lawyer said on Meet The Press yesterday. Lets listen. To me, even if he did a lot of the things theyre saying he did, prosecuting him, the same reasons why you wouldnt want to prosecute him as to why back in 2016 i was of the opinion that Hillary Clinton shouldnt be prosecuted, because there are all of these other problems. Laura, obviously this isnt apples to apples comparison here. What are differences . The problem with that argument is the facts are so different. Were talking about a much larger set of classified materials in the case of trump. Its really going to come down to an evaluation of content. Hes presupposing in that answer that his former client didnt have the requisite intent, he didnt willfully retain the documents. The worst fact for him on that score is he didnt give them back when he was asked to. He got a request the nice way. Then they got a subpoena and then they had to actually get a search warrant. Thats completely different than the case of biden, pence and clinton. Danny, what are you watching for this week . A lot of what is happening over at the grand jury which is were not going to know whats going on. Going back to what laura said, i think there are similar if were going to respond to what Tim Parlatore said in that interview, we have to acknowledge the similarities that they are, and that will make the differences stand out in even more stark contrast. By that i mean, is there a significance that this is a president ial candidate going into an election . Yes. Does this investigation involve documents . Yes. Beyond that, i think laura is spot on. Its the knowledge and the intent and all the evidence we have of the surrounding circumstances. Its easy enough to prove that there were documents, they were in the white house, then they were in maralago. Thats the physical evidence. The challenge for prosecutors is and will always be proving the mental element, the intent. They didnt really have it with Hillary Clinton. Here donald trump is helping prosecutors by going on the air and saying things in his trumpian fashion that he doesnt realize are getting him in trouble. Every Defense Attorney in the world since the dawn of civilization can tell you that every client who thinks he can talk his way out of trouble often talks his way right back into into or into deeper trouble. Thank you so much. Laura jarrett, Danny Cevallos, barbara mack quaid, i appreciate you all. When were back in 60 seconds, president zelenskyy says his troops are ready and theres evidence the effort could be under way. Collision course. A nearmiss between a chinese warship and an American Navy destroyer. Just the latest incident rising tensions between washington and beijing. Whats china up to . Later, prince harry set to break another royal tradition. The court case Buckingham Palace and royal watchers are following. This is ana cabrera reports. Were back in just one minute. Were back in just one minute. M. Now ports can know where every piece of cargo is. And where its going. dock worker right on time. vo robots can predict breakdowns and order their own replacement parts. foreman nice work. vo and retailers can get ahead of the Fashion Trend of the day with a new line tomorrow. With a verizon private 5g network, you can get more agility and security. Giving you more control of your business. We call this enterprise intelligence. From the Network America relies on. As someone living with Type 2 Diabetes, i want to keep it real and talk about some risks. With Type 2 Diabetes you have up to 4 times greater risk of stroke, heart attack, or death. Even at your a1c goal, youre still at risk. Which if ignored could bring you here. May put you in one of those. Or even worse. Too much . Thats the point. Get real about your risks and do something about it. Talk to your Health Care Provider about ways to lower your risk of stroke, heart attack, or death. Learn more at getrealaboutdiabetes. Com were following Breaking News out of ukraine this morning where russia claims the Ukrainian Military has launched a new offensive in the east. Kyiv did not confirm or deny the claims but worry about potential russian misinformation. Its unclear whether this is the start of the counteroffensive by ukraine. Lets get right to nbc news Foreign Correspondent molly hunter in kharkiv. We know ukraine has been Planning A Counteroffensive for months. Is there any clarity on whether todays action is the start of that . Reporter hi, ana. Theres not a lot of clarity. Weve been trying to get that clarity the last couple hours. Overnight the Russian Ministry of defense put out a statement saying theyve repelled a largescale offensive. They use the word offensive. The ukrainians use the word counteroffensive. They say it happened in the southern part of the Eastern Donetsk region. The Russian Ministry of defense claimed hundreds of ukrainian troops died in this mornings offensive. Nbc news has not verified that information. The ukrainians have not verified that information. Ana, the ukrainian officials have long said they are not going to announce or confirm any kind of start date. As you mentioned over the weekend president zelenskyy got people talking, heightening speculation about being on the eve of a battle for a counteroffensive. He said were ready to launch a counteroffensive. On sunday just after zelenskyys comment, the army put out this video, about 30 seconds, ana, that has ukrainian soldiers literally shushing the camera. I have a statement from the last hour from ukrainian officials. The first is the spokesman for the eastern groups of forces. He calls the russian allegations this morning an absolute lie. He says they did not cause us any losses. Just a couple minutes ago, the Deputy Defense minister put out a statement and she wrote, what is happening now, we are continuing the defense we started on february 24th. She goes on to say that the defensive operation includes everything and includes counteroffensive actions. She says, therefore, in some areas we are switching to offensive actions. Whether or not this is the longawaited kind of muchanticipated, muchrumored counteroffensive, ana, we dont know. A close call in the Taiwan Strait escalating tensions between the u. S. And china. This Surveillance Video from the Department Of Defense shows a chinese Warship Sailing right into the path of an american destroy on saturday, just 150 yards separate these two ships. The u. S. Calls it an extremely dangerous move. Chinas Defense Minister defended its actions and actually accused the u. S. Of provoking china by sailing in this area. Of course, this follows another close call in the air when a chinese fighter jet flew in front of an american reconnaissance plane last week forcing it to fly into its turbulence. Lets bring in courtney kube. What are we hearing from the Chinese Government, from the u. S. , about what was going on here . There was a big conference In Singapore Last week and over the weekend. We heard from both the u. S. And chinese sides specifically about these incidents nearly in realtime, ana. From the chinese side, the Defense Minister said these recent incidents are a direct result of the u. S. Militarys ongoing patrols and exercises in the area. So what were seeing here in the Taiwan Strait, this was a joint exercise with the Canadian Military where they transited through the Taiwan Strait. As our viewers can see here, this chinese ship came within 150 yards. Whats important to point out is not just the proximity here but the fact that it crossed