Moment a passenger jet suddenly plunges 20,000 feet. Passengers get down. Harvey weinsteins brother speaks out claiming he was a victim of his brothers verbal and physical abuse. Late july. And just in time. And it is gone it is a walkoff home run. A dramatic blast gives the l. A. Dodgers a commanding lead over the cubs in the National League championship series. Today monday, october 16th, 2017. From nbc news, this is today with matt lauer and Savannah Guthrie live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. And good morning, everyone. Welcome to today on this monday morning. Thanks for joining us. Nice to have you with us. As we get started on the work week, a lot to get to. Well start with breaking news in louisiana. An oil rig exploded on a lake near new orleans overnight injuring crew members and leading to fears of a possible leak. Nbcs Tammy Leitner has more on this situation that has been changing. Good morning to you. Reporter good morning, matt. Five people are critically injured. Theyve launched a search and rescue. At this point its believed one person is still missing. Overnight an explosion on an oil rig in louisiana near the city of kenner just outside of new orleans. Fire erupting on a platform used to transfer oil. Were on the levee and we can see its going to be an oil rig thats on fire right now. Reporter rattled residents reported hearing a loud sonic boom. Some posting to social media capturing large fireballs and smoke from the rig. Seen from more than a mile away on the shore of lake pontchartrain. Workers were cleaning a chemical on the platform when the rig exploded sending seven people to the hospital with injuries. From what we understand they were cleaning some type of chemicals on the platform but obviously the victims of this fire are in the hospital right now. We can leave those interviews until another day. Reporter its too early to tell if any oil has been spilled but no Drinking Water has been affected. Were trying to stop the oil flow and then well have to cool it and let it burn off. There are storage tank on that platform and depending on the volume of those tanks is probably how long this is going to burn. Reporter at this point its unclear what caused that explosion. This morning investigators will be going out to that platform to determine if any oil has spilled into the lake. Tammy leitner on this story for us, thanks very much. Also this morning the fight against those Deadly Wildfires in california now entering a second week. Crews are battling those flames. Were seeing dramatic video of two friends trying to escape one of the growing fires. Joe fryers in santa rosa for us. Joe, good morning. Reporter savannah, good morning. The winds have died down considerably, but the fire danger is still very real. Weve seen evacuation orders listed in the city of napa and other areas. A Welcome Break for exhausted firefighters on the front line who have been battling for a week now trying to save as many lives and homes as possible. Helped by calmer winds and cooling temps, 11,000 firefighters are dpaning ground but the toll on First Responders has been brutal. Help people understand, how long are the shifts. We work 24hour shifts. Reporter a week after these fires started theyre still burning aggressively, still burning homes and firefighters are working around the clock to put them out. Thousands of firefighters are sleeping in tent cities, using makeshift bathrooms and eating when they can. Were probably sleeping in this dirt lot here. Were grateful for any sleep. Were not complaining. Reporter many firefighters cope with losing their own. This is my house, this is my home. This is my everything. Now i have to figure out where to go from here. Reporter most of the deceased are older than 70, like carmen barres. She was with her husband when flames engulfed their home. They held each other in the pool for five hours. Armando survived, but carmen, too weak from the smoke, died in his arms. They did that together. That was their strength. That was the beauty behind their relationship and everything they did. Reporter how bad has it been . I cant breathe. Reporter this newly released video shows two roommates survived the terrifying drive but lost their home and all of their possessions to the fires. Amid the devastation, some stories of hope. Izzie . Reporter jack weaver and his friend came back to search for their dog izzie. When out of the blue, a miracle. Izzies here. Come here, baby. Reporter izzie was reunited with her owners, frightened but unhurt. I dropped my phone i was so excited. Yeah, it was a great moment. Reporter the death toll this morning is at 40. Firefighters, though, say they finally turned a corner. The three big fires that have devastated this region over the past week are now between 40 and 65 contained. Savannah and matt. Joe fryer, thank you. Weve got some breaking news now overseas. Iraqi federal forces launched a major operation thats aimed at driving Kurdish Forces from the disputed city of kirkuk. Troops have not yet entered that city but residents have reported what sounds like shelling and rocket fire. Kurdish forces took control of kirkuk back in 2014 when isis swept across Northern Iraq and the countrys armed forces crumbled. Iraq has since demanded that the city be handed back to federal control. Tensions have escalated since the kurds voted for independence in a nonbinding referendum last month. The conflict puts the United States in a difficult position because both the iraqi army and those Kurdish Forces are our allies in the fight against isis. The death toll is still rising this morning after a massive truck bomb blast in somalias capital over the weekend. Over 300 people were killed and about 300 injured in the deadliest attack in somalias history. Some were being evacuated to mogadishu for treatment. No organization has claimed responsibility for this attack, but somalias blaming the Al Qaedalinked al shabaab extremist group. There are big headlines coming out of the white house centering on the president s relationships with keep members of his administration and party. This as a former white house insider declared war against the republican establishment. Nbcs Kristen Welker is covering all this for us. Good morning to you. Reporter busy monday here at the white house. President trump will spend the day focused largely on his domestic agenda. He and Vice President mike pence set to have lunch with majority leader mitch mcconditional. On the menu tax reform and the president s orders at gutting parts of obamacare. But its mr. Trumps Foreign Policy thats under a bright spotlight with his secretary of state speaking out over the weekend. This morning the relationship between the president and the nations top diplomat under mounting scrutiny with secretary of state Rex Tillerson repeatedly refusing to deny he called the president a moron after a National Security meeting in july first reported by nbc news. Im not going to deal with that kind of petty stuff. Im not playing. Im not playing. You want to make a game out of it, im not playing. Reporter but secretary tillerson did address a provocative comment from senator bob corker who told the washington post, President Trumps tweets and fp comments undercut tillersons efforts on iran and north korea saying you cannot publicly castrate your own secretary of state. Tillersons response . I checked, im fully intact. Reporter and tweeting that tillerson was wasting his time trying to negotiate with north korea, tillerson insisted sunday the strategy is working. Hes made it clear that i should continue my diplomatic efforts. Those diplomatic efforts will continue until first bomb drops. Reporter nikki haley defending the approach to north korea and downplaying any tensions between the president and secretary tillerson. Ive been in the room with them many times. They continue to work strongly together. Reporter and while the administration is striking a united front, the president reaching out to members of his own party including Senate Majority leader mitch mcconnell. The two set to meet for lunch today after months of tensions between the president and mcconnell over the stalled republican agenda. According to a white house official, theyll discuss the budget, tax reform and Foreign Policy, but in the background, the gop facing fractures as the president s former top adviser, steve bannon, is vowing to torpedo the Establishment Branch of the gop. Theres a time and season for everything. And right now its a season of war against a gop establishment. Reporter and delivering this warning to mcconnell. Yeah, mitch, the donors are not happy. Theyve all left you. Weve cut your oxygen off, mitch. Reporter now, Senate Republicans are hitting back. Mr. Bannons overthetop rhetoric is not helpful. Membership mcconnell is the Senate Majority leader. The president needs him. Reporter for his part, the president spent much of his weekend reaching out to members of his own party, playing golf with senator Lindsey Graham on saturday and senator rand paul on sunday. As he looks for some legislative victories in the coming weeks. Matt, savannah . It would be interesting to be a fly on the wall at that lunch today. Thank you very much. A lot more to get to this morning including the long road to recovery for a family held hostage by a talibanlinked group for five years. For First Time Since arriving back in canada, theyre now opening up about what they faced and their future. Stephanie gosk is just outside ontario with that story. Good morning. Reporter good morning, savannah. Joshua and Caitlan Boyle are here with their three children. Theyre adjusting to what must be an unimaginable shock. Today we get the first look inside their lives. Held hostage in afghanistan for five years, Canadian Joshua Boyle and his american wife Caitlan Coleman are back in canada this morning. For their children who have only lived in captivity, its the start of a new life. Hes 4 years old and has never had toys or books, has never heard of mickey mouse. He doesnt actually understand that there was a sun outside. So forget mickey mouse. Were dealing with the basics. Its not welcome to the western world. Its not welcome to canada. Its welcome to life. Reporter Caitlan Coleman remains secluded, not yet speaking publicly. Her husband providing this photograph. Boyle says for his wife its still too soon to talk about what happened. Her religious faith gets her through. And i think that and her love of being a mother. Reporter boyle says the couple traveled to afghanistan in 2012 to help villagers living under taliban rule. But were kidnapped by militants. Pregnant at the time of their abduction, caitlan gave birth to two sons and a daughter in captivity. According to boyle, the couple also had another daughter who was killed by their captors. The decision to travel to the war zone infuriated members of caitlans family. Taking your pregnant wife to a very dangerous place, its unconscionable. Reporter since their release new attention is being focused on boyles life before the abduction. At one point he was briefly married to the sister of omar kutter. He was released, the canadian government determined he was being held unjustly. Today boyle describes the horror his family endured, imprisoned by a notorious terror group. Wed be kept in a chicken coop that they sort of armored up. The worst of them were underground filled with water. Reporter and even though they now have all the space they could want, they all still sleep together in this one small bedroom, their children still eating off the floor. Boyle worries they are scarred after years of brutal treatment. He and his wife gradually helping them to adapt to their new way of life. So what were seeing now is really what happens when a child goes its entire life without even a concept of what hoping for better is because they dont know that better can even exist. Reporter boyle says they are looking for help with this difficult transition and reaching out to psychologists, but honestly, their situation is so unique, theyre really in unchartered territory. Guys, back to you. Stephanie gosk, incredible story. Thank you very much. In other news, theres new fallout tied to those controversial anthem protests in the nfl. Colin kaepernick who was the first to take a knee last season and is currently out of the league is filing a grievance accusing team owners of conspiring against him. National correspondent Miguel Almaguer has that story. Reporter its an issue thats become a political lightning rod, nfl players protesting during the National Anthem becoming a divisive topic nationwide. Now the man who started the move machine, Colin Kaepernick, is suing the nfl saying hes being forced out of the league. This morning Colin Kaepernick is fighting to get back on the field. Last season becoming the first nfl player to take a knee during the National Anthem protesting racial inequality and social injustice. Now kaepernick is filing a grievance against the nfl. His high profile attorney mark ger igos is claiming that it kept him out of a job this spring. Wouldnt you love to see one of these nfl owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out, hes fired . Reporter President Trump waded into the issue last month. Colin kaepernick arguing that all the teams owners violated a collective Bargaining Agreement to keep kaepernick from playing this season. With the nfl declining comment, the Players Association says in a statement, they have a duty to assist mr. Kaepernick as we do all players, and we will support him. But legal experts say kaepernick could have a hard time proving collusion. There needs to be an agreement that he has to have evidence of in order to successfully prove his collusion claim. Reporter in a statement, kaepernicks legal team says his goal remains to simply be treated fairly by the league he performed at the highest level for and to return to the football playing field. There are plenty of coaches out there who could take a guy like Colin Kaepernick and get the most out of him based upon his skills and ability. Reporter kaepernick taking a knee to stand up for what he believes in and now filing a grievance. The National Anthem protest kaepernick started are still happening today. Six players on his former team, the San Francisco 49ers, took a knee on sunday before their game. Matt and savannah, back to you guys. Michel, thank you very much. Lets turn to al and get a check of the weather. Good news finally for the firefighters and all the folks living out there in northern and central california. This has been the persistent pattern. Big area of High Pressure over the great basin. Thats bringing in the dry, gusty winds, the really warm temperature. But thats weakening. Offshore winds return, cooler, more humid ocean air coming in, plus a front will push through bringing much more needed rain thursday into friday especially for Northern California. Anywhere from a half inch to an inch, maybe even two inches of rain into friday morning, and that will help as well. That will help as well. Were going to getmastering thet one dark chocolate rises above the rest lindt excellence created by our master chocolatiers pure, rich, darkly intense. Made like no other crafted elegantly thin to reveal complex layers of Flavor Experience excellence with all your senses and discover chocolate beyond compare try lindt excellence with a touch of sea salt. Good morning. Im first alert meteorologist krystal klei. Morning showers. Around noon to 1 00, everything should start to clear except the clouds. Those will stick around through much of the day. At the end of the day, peeks of sun. 63 only in the afternoon in center city. Allentown, an afternoon high of only about 59 degrees. 62 for voorheis. 64 ocean city. Low to mid 60s possible throughout delaware. Thats your latest weather, guys. We have much more ahead for you including the terrifying moment a crowded passenger jet suddenly dropped 20,000 feet. Why the flight crew is under fire this morning. And the new allegations Harvey Weinstein is facing this morning as his own brother speaks out about the scandal. You may be surprised what hes saying. But first, this is today on nbc. Straight ahead, were traveling the world this week to unlock the secrets of happiness. And hodas here. Weve got a father daughter duo unlike any other. Miley and billy ray when you say wallpaper, most people think doilies and cabbage roses. We wanted to make wallpaper cool again. One of the greatest challenges of running a Small Business is having to do a little bit of everything. Office 365 really lets us collaborate in real time. Once a client sees a 3d rendering, they get it. Who knew there would be so much math with wallpaper . The math feature is so amazing. Love, love, love teams. It simplifies communication from everywhere. 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