This Morning’s Top Headlines – Sept. 7 | Morning News Now

Good morning. It is great to be with you on this Labor Day Monday. I'm Jessica Leighton in for Joe and Savannah this morning and we begin this morning with that deadly runway disaster in south florida. Now under investigation authorities say five people are dead and five others injured after an amazon branded cargo plane crashed after overshooting a runway at Miami International Airport video shot right after the crash showing smoke billowing from the crash site. Officials say the Boeing 7 67 cargo plane arriving from Puerto Rico veered off the runway while landing sunday afternoon. The plane hit multiple vehicles bursting into flames before it came to arrest in a field near the airport with its nose resting on the ground. As you may have seen or may have heard, the airplane did strike a couple of vehicles that required a couple of victims that were actually trapped in the vehicles. So a complex extrication with our technical rescue teams started to occur. More than 60 Miami Dade fire rescue units responded to the scene. NBC News correspondent George Solis is following the story for us from Miami. George, good morning. Good morning. You can still see an active police presence here hours after this crash. Five lives tragically lost. Officials saying five others were injured, three of them critical still at a nearby hospital. Now, according to the F. A. This plane, this cargo plane was flying in from Puerto Rico when it tried to land here at M. I. A. The cargo plane completely bypassing the runway landing and then eventually crashing into this parking lot essentially of like a warehouse, a district that immediately leading to some flames. Fire officials saying about 200 firefighters arrived on the scene here to not only try to provide search and rescue but also contain a fuel leak that had sprung from the cargo plane. They also mentioned trying to get the pilot and co pilot out. Now we asked of the five deceased if they were on the plane or on the ground. As we know, this cargo plane branded with Amazon Air hit a few of those vehicles. Officials saying it was too early to make that determination. Now the F. A. And the N. T. S. B. Will be here on the ground doing what they do best, obtaining those recorder, those data recorder boxes, those black boxes essentially to try and figure out what went wrong here. A number of things are going to be looking at is whether weather played a factor here, whether this was operator error, whether there was anything mechanical. Obviously the community shaken up by this crash and as well as all those people that were disrupted on their flights, a number of delays and cancellations as a result of this cargo plane crash. The N. T. S. B. Chair will be here this morning to provide an update on what went wrong here, Jessica. All right, George, thank you. And for more on this, I want to bring in Jeffrey Needles. He's a retired Air Force fighter pilot and air dominance system expert to thank you for being here with us this morning. I want to ask you first what immediately stands out to you about this most recent incident. You know, in aircraft like this before you land, you run a calculation for expected landing distance as well as approach speed, and that's based off of gross weight of the aircraft. Uh, 80 S. B. Data seems to indicate that there's this airplane landed about on short final. Excuse me. This airplane was 1 to 200 ft high and 30 to 40 knots faster than than expected. So this by being in that energy state, you're expecting that you're gonna land long and fast. That's gonna invalidate all of that landing data. It's likely that the pilots knew this even a mile out before crossing the threshold of the runway. So when a Boeing 7 67 overruns a runway during landing Jeffrey, what are the kinds of things we can expect investigators to look at first? Uh, luckily, the pilots survived, so we're gonna be in a position where we can interview the pilots and understand their decision making and their thought processes. And then the obvious things we're gonna pull the flight data recorders off the airplane. They're gonna pull the air traffic control recordings on any other recordings that were made so that that way they can put together a holistic picture of what happened. You know, the big picture or the big goal of any safety investigation is to prevent this sort of event from happening again in the future. Well, it does bring back a recent memory of a recent incident with the Air Canada Express jet back in March that overran the runway in LaGuardia. I know that people are concerned that this is happening way too frequently. I want to ask you about how rare this is and people's safety in general as they decide to fly. You know, indeed, it's still safer to fly on an airplane that is to cross the street just walking around in your neighborhood. The fact that there are tens of thousands of flights every single day and that you see one of these events every other year still is it says it's a says a lot about the overall safety of air. Excuse me of air travel and air cargo in America. Jeffrey Needles. Thanks so much for your perspective this morning. We really appreciate it. In news overseas, Iran says it will soon announce a new restricted zone near the Strait of Hormuz slapping sanctions on vessels that try to get through that area. Iran says it will also announce a new shipping corridor in agreement with that same issue. The effort in an attempt to get around the U. S. Naval blockade and comes just a day after the U. S. Bombed three Iranian oil tankers. We have Claudio Lavanga standing by to bring us this story, but we'll get to that in a moment. First, we want to go to political news. A campaign stop in Ohio taking a frightening turn. A spokesperson for Amy Action, Ohio's Democratic nominee for governor, says an armed person lunged at the candidate and injured several other people at a fair. The suspect was arrested and law enforcement recovered two handguns and a set of brass knuckles. NBC News Capitol Hill reporter Brennan Leach joins us now with that and more. Brennan, good morning. What more do we know about this incident right now? Hey, Jessica, good morning. Here's what we know about yesterday's frightening attack. A spoke. A law enforcement says 38 year old Patrick Havas has been taken into custody as a suspect. A spokesperson for the local sheriff said that Amy Acton was speaking to a crowd inside of a tent when Havas entered the tent and charged at her before being stopped by security. You see him on your screen. Law enforcement recovered those two handguns, a taser and a set of brass knuckles. After arresting Havas, according to the sheriff, acting a physician actually stayed on site to help an injured person. That's according to a photo shared with NBC News. Acton spokesperson said that she and her husband are quote grateful for the swift and decisive action of law enforcement and are praying for the Brennan, the Trump administration is making yet another push on mail in voting, asking the Supreme Court for a third time now to temporarily allow the U. S. Postal Service to have some control over mail in voting in these upcoming elections. The latest attempt coming just a few days after a federal judge blocked the USPS from doing that exact thing. So curious what's the significance of the timing here? Yeah, that's right. President Trump is again asking the Supreme Court to allow his plan to restrict mail in voting to move forward. And the timing is significant because the midterm elections are actually already underway. North Carolina became the first state to send out mail in ballots to voters. And that means that it may be too late for President Trump to implement his plan, which would involve directing the U. S. Postal Service to track and potentially reject some mail in ballots. So it's worth noting that while the president continues to rail against the legitimacy of voting by mail, mail in ballots are widely used by both Republicans and Democrats alike. And Trump's Super PAC is now putting some serious cash behind Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton. MAGA Incorporated is dropping $10 million in this Texas Senate race, the first major general election add by of the midterms. So, Brennan, what does this tell us about the state of that race? That's right. Texas is a must win state for Republicans if they want to hold their Senate majority. And this $10 million infusion into Paxton's campaign is a huge deal. And it's also interesting timing. There are a lot of Republican candidates around the country who have been asking President Trump to tap into this war chest of money that he has through his Super PAC MAGA Inc and start investing in key close midterm races like Paxton's. You'll remember that Paxton defeated incumbent Republican Senator John Cornyn in the primary. He did that with President Trump's support. But now there are some Republicans that are expressing concerns publicly that Paxton may have a hard time defeating James Tallarico, the Democrat in that race because of some of his past controversies. So this money coming at a critical moment for the Paxton campaign just 57 days out from the midterm elections. Jessica. All right, Brennan Leach, thanks so much. And with less than two months until those midterm elections, a new poll by the NBC News Decision Desk shows President Trump's support among Republicans is shrinking. The share of Republicans who strongly approve of the president and how he's handling the war with Iran has dropped sharply in recent months. NBC News chief data analyst Steve Kornacki is breaking down some of those key results of the survey. Steve, good morning. All right, let's dive right in. Remember, this is our decision desk poll. It's a little bit different. All adults, not just registered voters. So a bit of a wider net. But clearly here you can see with this survey group here, President Trump's job performance. Only 36% say they approve of how he's handling his job as president. There's been a steady decline in this number in the decision desk poll over the last year or so early in Trump's second term. It was 45% approval. It is ticked down now nearly 10 points to 36% over the last year or a year and a half or so. A big thing driving this. No surprise here. It's the war with Iran. His handling of that. Only 31% say they approve of it. Even seeing some cracks here in Trump's base when it comes particular particularly to this issue. Now looking ahead to the midterm climate, an issue that's getting more and more attention and focus in our politics is A. I. So we dove deep on that as well. Show you a little bit of what we find. It's a lot of anxiety. It's a lot of apprehension here. Are you personally more excited or more worried about A. I. Look at this. Overwhelmingly, folks saying they are more worried than excited. And this is bipartisan here. It's more overwhelming with Democrats, 77% than Republicans, 64%. But those are big numbers in each party. So a lot of apprehension when it comes to a I'm looking more closely at it here. The risk reward calculation with a I asking people about the benefits of it. Are there gonna be benefits? And there are folks who say there could be very high. There are folks who say there could be high benefits from it. There's certainly people who don't feel that way. A lot are sort of in the middle. But here's where folks are more clear. What about the risks of a I here? Look at this. 2 3rd 67% say there are very high or high risks that they see when it comes to a much more on the risk side than on the reward side. There's also this data centers obviously becoming a big issue in a lot of elections here. Would you support one in your local area? 9 21. That's a combined 31% who say yes, meaning nearly 70% say no, they would not support a data center in their area. That is more acute among Democrats among self described progressive Democrats. They're the most likely to say they oppose it. Mega Republicans are a little bit more mixed. They're about 50 50. But overall, that nets out to a lot of opposition to these data centers here and then asking about schools here. What's the better way to use a I prohibit it, not use it at all or integrate it. And you could see a majority now saying prohibit it. What's notable here is how this issue is sort of influx. We pulled this question a year ago. A year ago, there was majority support for integrating A. I. Now it's majority opposition to it. So again, just shows you how this issue. It's a fast developing one. But that apprehension, I think, driving a lot of the politics behind it right now. So interesting, Steve. Thank you. And now let's go back to that news overseas. Iran saying it will soon announce a new restricted zone near the Strait of Hormuz, slapping sanctions on vessels that try to get through the restricted area. Iran says it will also announce a new shipping corridor in agreement with Oman. The effort is an attempt to get around the U. S. Naval blockade, and it comes just a day after the U. S. Bombed three Iranian oil tankers. NBC News international correspondent Claudio La Vanga is joining us now, Claudio. Good morning. So help us understand exactly what Iran is planning to do in the Strait of Hormuz. What are they aiming to achieve with this restricted zone? Good morning, Jessica. Well, this is coming from the secretary of the Iranian Security Council. According to Iranian state media, he said that soon two things will be introduced by Iran. One is a map of approved routes off shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, including, of course, those vital oil tankers. The second one, as you mentioned, is this restricted zone, which he said the secretary of the Iranian National Council said that it will start. It will begin from where the U. S. Blockade area off the Strait of Hormuz begins, and you will expand to a wider area in the Persian Gulf. Um, and said that any ships that will go through this area so even outside the Strait of Hormuz will be added to a sanctions list. Now, it didn't say much more than that. There's no details. There's no map yet, so hopefully we'll get more details of that soon, Jessica. And as we mentioned, it comes after yet another round of U. S. Strikes over the weekend. What was targeted and why, Claudio? Well, that's right. It will start on Saturday when the U. S. Central Command said that he striked three oil Iranian oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz in response to the launch off ballistic missiles by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards of Iran aimed at two U. S. Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Of course, this resumption off military activity in the Strait of Hormuz says, uh, has also contributed to the rise not only of tensions in the area, but also a rising oil prices as we've seen in the markets from early this morning, Jessica and Claudia. We're also following the situation in Lebanon happening. Lebanese health officials say Israeli strikes killed at least 11 people and there are Children among the dead. That's despite this ceasefire that is supposed to be in place. What are you hearing about that? Yeah, that's right. Well, that's the it's coming from the Lebanese health ministry. The ministry says that since early this morning, there were two different strikes from Israel in Lebanon. One that targeted a house in the south off Lebanon in which eight people were killed, including a child and two women and then in a separate strike in a different area off Lebanon, still in the south in a parking lot, which killed three more people. That brings the death toll since early today from strikes of Israel in Lebanon to 11 Jessica. All right, Claudio La Vanga with a big wrap up for us this morning. Thanks so much. And now to the Labor Day travel rush. Millions of Americans heading home today, wrapping up the long holiday weekend. The roads and airports, of course, expected to be packed with drivers facing record high Labor Day gas prices and a few weather concerns across parts of the central U. S. NBC News correspondent Ryan Chandler is in Dallas for us this morning, Ryan. Good morning. Let's start with what you're seeing. I hope people aren't heading home just yet. It's still early. You know, this may be one of the best times to get home, Jessica. Actually, you know, Dallas highways are always crazy. We won't necessarily think this is indicative of what your experience may be, but I don't want to jinx it yet. It's looking pretty good on the highways here and in the airports all across the country. We've been monitoring the delays and cancellations at some major hubs nationwide, and it's tracking pretty normally right now. We have 542 canceled delays at last check and 90 cancellations. That's about to be expected at this time on a busy travel day like this. Miami, of course, after that tragic crash yesterday is dealing with the most problems at their airport, but still relatively minor impacts expected for weather at other airports throughout the rest of the day, Jessica. And for the millions hitting the road today, what kind of sticker shock are they in for when it comes to the gas prices compared to last Labor Day? I feel like it got better for a few days, and then I was so surprised when I went to fill up yesterday. Yeah, all these drivers are paying a whole lot more than they're used to on Labor Day. In fact, these are the most expensive gas prices ever on a Labor Day weekend, an average of about 4 15 nationwide, capping out at about 5 15 last month. It was only about four bucks, and last Labor Day was only 3 19. So we're dealing with an average about a dollar more than last year. Certainly a hit to people's wallets as they drive so many miles this holiday weekend. And when we consider all the planes, trains and automobiles, what can you tell travelers they can do to make their trip home a little bit easier today? So TSA says they expect 2.6 million people to travel through checkpoints today alone. So with crowds like that, you know, the tips are the same every time. Get to the airport early. Make sure that you're using, uh, pre check if you can know what your next flight may be. So if there's a long delay or a cancellation, you're not put that far out and can get home on another airline or another flight. If you can, all of these will just make your travel day a little bit smoother. Hopefully you can get home safe and sound and hit this short work week we have ahead of us. Full steam ahead. Jessica was short for some right, Ryan. Thanks so much with so much travel today and a new season unofficially starting. Let's get a check on your morning news now. Weather meteorologist Angie Lastman joins us now with the latest there, Angie. Good morning. Hey there. Good morning. Let's take a look at what we've got going on travel wise today as folks get on the roads or head to the airports. We do have a couple of spots that I would watch across parts of the northern plane. Some strong storms there. I 90 I 94 and then across the parts of the southeast. I 95 and I 10. Both locations that you'll likely see some showers, some thunderstorms, some slowdowns on the roadways. Typical kind of airport delays in those locations as well. Atlanta, New Orleans, Minneapolis. Possible delays will likely see some of those delays across florida. Places like Orlando in Miami airports going to see some shower and thunderstorm activity, especially into the afternoon hours today. Big picture. Look, we've got those scattered storms I mentioned across parts of the plains and the southeast. That's gonna be kind of the general area that we watch over the next two days. Really? We've got this front working into parts of the Midwest tomorrow. The risk for severe weather is going to be on the low end as folks get back to work. So not too worried about that. And even today, it's really kind of a small area that we're looking at for the stronger storms to develop. But there could still be some general thunderstorms across these locations. By the time this is all said and done through at least Tuesday, we'll pick up maybe an inch or two inches in some of these spots across parts of the plains and the southeast. Otherwise, we're looking fairly dry for other locations across the country. It's just those two spots. Then we head out to the pacific where we've still got hurricane loa category three right now. Just kind of a healthy looking storm as it's expected to pass just to the west of Hawaii here as we get through at least late today and into tomorrow. Notice it kind of does a loop de loop as it weekends. But we do have those hurricane warnings up for the western islands of Hawaii as we look for the potential for anywhere from 10 to 15 inches of rain possible. Those localized amounts will be on the higher end. But again, places like Honolulu and Hanalei are going to be the spots that will watch for that. We've also got tropical storm Marie 65 mile per hour winds and moving northwest at eight miles per hour. That's going to bring some rough surf to our friends in southern California. We'll see maybe 60 even 10 ft waves for folks there. Otherwise, indirect impacts only. We're not expecting this system to work its way closer to the coast. It will just be some of that kind of erosion at the beaches and the dangerous swells and rip currents that we see across that location through the next couple of days back to you. We thank you for watching and remember, stay updated on breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or watch live on our youtube channel.