locked out of the cockpit. reports claiming one of the pilots of germanwings 9525 could be heard desperately trying to get back in before the plane crashed into the alps. this morning, the mystery deepens. what was the other pilot inside the cockpit doing. this as we learn new information about those on board. we are covering all angles.

welcome to "early start." i'm christine romans. john berman is in washington, d.c. a blockbuster revelation that puts investigators one step closer to cause the germanwings jetliner to crash in the alps. one of the pilots on the flight was locked out of the cockpit as the plane flew straight into the mountain. a senior military official stating the pilot can be heard on the cockpit voice recorder knocking, tapping first and then trying to smash down the door to get back into the cockpit. turning to erin mclaughlin at the staging area in the french alps. what do we know about what could have been on that cockpit voice recorder erin?

>> reporter: christine, the mystery deepening here in france. what we don't seem to know or what authorities don't know is why one of the pilots left the cockpit and why the other pilot didn't let him back inside. now so far french authorities have declined to comment on the reports. publicly what they said about the contents of the cockpit flight recorder is they are analyzing noises and voices on the file. meanwhile, a critical piece to the puzzle still missing. the flight data recorder. we know they managed to recover the casing but the recorder itself still missing. no doubt a subject to the ongoing recovery search happening in the alps. it kicked off again this morning. the first helicopters landing in the staging area behind me. we are expecting the arrival of

the friends and families of victims. some 400 expected. they are being brought here to be as close to their loved ones as possible. christine. >> on that data recorder the flight data recorder they are still looking for essentially the memory card. that will give the technical details of what was happening. the speed, the flight the pitch. all of that. that's what is on that memory card. they have not found it yet. >> reporter: that's exactly right, christine. it will give them a clearer picture of what was going on in terms of the operation of the plane and the moments before that crashed. french president francois holland said they have not found the recorder itself. the ceo of lufthansa believes there is a high probability they will find that recorder. the question is what condition

will that recorder be in. >> combing the slopes of the mountain side. erin mclaughlin at the staging area. new details emerging about the victims. 150 victims of the germanwings crash. passengers from all over the world, including three americans. two were a mother/daughter. emily and yvonne selke. her mother, a long time employee of hamilton. the officials have not identified the third american. our authorities are with the families. we are learning about other passengers presumed dead in the crash. at least 18 countries keep updating the numbers. they came from the middle east asia north and south america and in europe. the largest from spain. the origin of fight 9525.

and germany. joining us from home of 16 students and two teachers on that flight southbound's diana magnay. what's the latest? >> reporter: christine, 72 people from germany who lost their lives according to the latest toll. you say 18 of them from this town. i'm in front of the gymnasium where you see the memorial to the pupils who lost their lives. all day, so far, classmates have been coming to pay respects to the friends they lost. signs up saying things like "why." this is a town in mourning. if you go to the church a similar memorial in the church. a book of condolences. the children at this school have special trauma counselors and psychologists on hand to try to get them through this time. there will be a moment of

silence held at the exact time the plane went down in schools across the region of germany and north reine. also christine, the relatives of those who died have been contacted by lufthansa and are flying from dusseldorf and barcelona to a special crisis center to be taken as close to the crash site as possible. all part really of the process to help them come to terms with their grief as the investigation continues. >> diana magnay in the hard broken town of haltern, germany. the weather in the french alps set to cause problems for the recovery efforts. pedram javaheri tracking the forecast this morning. >> good morning, christine. you know we all have seen the footage of the steep terrain. 60 degree to 70 degree slopes across the portion of the canyon. you go in to the canyon it is

narrow. 820 feet wide when you get into the close zone of the canyon. they placed a grid line with the room they have to work with. one helicopter directing other helicopters in the grid lines. that is to drop personnel to the floor. the concerns are the winds. thursday and friday. the prevailing winds like to stay at the ridgetops. when you get within the mountain side a narrow grid line and a lot of personnel across the region that will be a major concern when it comes to the hazards across the central mediterranean. the forecast could bring in winds gusting up to 50 miles per hour across the region of the alps. >> that makes for tough going. thank you, pedram. how safe are european airlines?

despite concerns this week very safe. the germanwings crash was the first since the air france jet was lost in 2009. according to the safety agency the 20 countries of the eu have the lowest rate of accidents. the germanwings disaster follows 641 deaths in 2014. that is three times the number for 2013. it doesn't include the 298 lives when malaysia airline mh-17 was shot down over ukraine. breaking overnight, yemen erupting saudi arabia. launching air strikes against iranian backed houthis. the u.s. on the sidelines providing intelligent support. this fight to stabilize yemen is threatening to escalate into an

all-out war. cnn's becky anderson is live in abu dhabi. >> reporter: this is a coalition with teeth. let's get through who is all involved going forward in these air strikes. 100 saudi arabia war planes de s deplayed and ready. ten from qatar. the gcc coalition members here and you have egypt and jordan saying they will also get involved as well. we have seen air strikes on houthis militia strongholds in saana. the capital city overnight reports of heavy bombing there. the saudis say they bombed two

air bases taken over in recent days by houthis militia request. this is a sheer minority believed to be backed by the iranians which saudi arabia is as you can imagine very concerned about. there are two complications here christine, i think. we have already seen al qaeda and isis capitalizing on the power vacuum in the country with deadly attacks over recent days. for example, on mosques in saana. the other consequence is what happens to the u.s./iranian talks at present. the u.s. backing president hadi as the houthi militia surged toward aden. we believe he has fled the country along with the regional

diplomats based in aden. concerned about the arabian influence in the country on the state of chaos on the southern border. the great foe, iran and the influence it has there, of critical importance to the saudis. as i say in the background you have the u.s. talks going on with iran as well. so what happens next in this country is going to be incredibly important, not just for yemen and for this region as a whole, but going forward for the world. this is a critical situation. it couldn't be anymore important at this point. >> saudi arabia launching air strikes in yemen. becky anderson thank you. in iraq u.s. war planes launches positions on tikrit. iraqi forces have been fighting to retake the city for weeks.

isis fighters are holding their own. the pentagon resumeing a leading role in the offensive. in the iraqi city of mosul dropping leaflets. the u.s. soldier rescued from the taliban, five years in captivity, now charged with desertion desertion. and tearing through oklahoma, video of the overnight storm. that's ahead. just about anywhere you use sugar, you can use splenda®... ...no calorie sweetener. splenda® lets you experience... ...the joy of sugar... ...without all the calories. think sugar, say splenda® septic system breakdowns affect over 1 million homes a year and can cost thousands of dollars to repair. thankfully, rid-x has enzymes to break down waste and time-released bacteria to reduce tank buildup. rid-x. #1 in septic maintenance. and now for rvs too!

after investigating the circumstances, the army charged bowe bergdahl after he ran away from a battle station from a time of war. bergdahl was held for five years by the taliban before his release in a prisoner exchange

last may. cnn's martin savage following latest from san antonio, texas. >> reporter: despite the charges against him, it is expected according to the u.s. military this is another typical day for bowe bergdahl. he has not been taken into custody and he is not being held. you will remember he came to san antonio last may after released from captiveity for two purposes. one to get him medically fit and to put him through a reintegration program. it helps p.o.w.s come back to normal life. once he completed that program, he was given a desk job at ft. sam houston in the building behind us here. that has been his life. the u.s. military will say he is treated no differently than any other soldier. he has the same freedoms and privileges with maybe one

exception. whenever he leaves post he is escorted by two soldiers. as to what is next, the article 32 hearing in san antonio. it will be then determined if the evidence is sufficient to move forward with an actual court martial. christine. >> martin thank you. it is day 14 in the trial accused boston marathon bomber dzhokhar tsarnaev. the prosecution is close to wrapping its case. in wednesday, more evidence recovered from tsarnaev's dorm room. jurors heard about bomb making parts found in his brother tamerlan's apartment. the apartment described as almost looking like a construction site. testimony resumes this morning in the aaron hernandez trial. the judge says prosecutors are about a week away from resting the case from the former nfl

star. he is accused of murder of odin lloyd. she ruled some jailhouse phone calls will be allowed as evidence despite objections by hernandez's defense team. martese johnson, the student's bloody arrest on video will be in court today. he will plead not guilty. his arrest sparked protests and allegations of police brutality. johnson is expected to meet with investigators looking into the case. reverend jesse jackson says it is a day of joy. his son about to be released from federal prison in alabama. he will serve out the remainder of his time for misusing $750,000 of campaign funds at a halfway house. his wife will begin serving time

for her role in the crime. a swarm of tornadoes swept across oklahoma wednesday leaving wreckage in their wake. stunning video showing a twister touching down in tulsa where one person is reported dead this morning. reports of severe damage in moore, oklahoma. a 2013 tornado in moore, killed 200 and injured more than 300. cars were overturned and power lines snapped. officials say 20 people were treated at area hospitals. new questions this morning into why germanwings 9525 suddenly crashed. we are examining the plane's crash compared to others and what it could tell us about what was happening inside that cockpit.

this morning, investigators trying to piece together the final seconds of germanwings 9525. we learned from media reports shows that one of the pilots was locked out of the cockpit. investigators have evidence besides the voice and data recorders. radar tracking of course and altitude compared to other crashes for hints of what might have happened. cnn's tom forman has more.

>> reporter: investigators are looking at the final minutes of the flight and comparing to it to other flights. if you look at what happened with flight alaska 261. let's bring in a timeline of the flight and look at what happened. they lost ability to pitch the plane, whether it went up or down. if you look at the flight pattern of the end of the flight you can see it was pitching around. they were tyingrying to do something with it but they reached a catastrophic point and it crashed with all lives lost. distinctive pattern. let's look at another one. this flight from swiss air near nova nova scotia. they kept trying to deal with a fire and the plane to an attempt of an emergency landing. it did not work. if you look at the flight

pattern, they are trying to wrestle with the plane that doesn't want to do what they want it to do. eventually eventually they crash also. all lives lost there. now look at one more here. this is a greek airline called helios flight 522. in this case the crew suffered from hiypoxia. the crew passed out. one attempt by the flight attendant who was able to try to fly the plane. it coasted and went in on auto pilot to the ground. look at that flight pattern. different and smooth and regular. let's add the germanwings flight pattern. it too, has that same smooth pattern. does that mean this was a case of hypoxia? we don't really know that. investigators have to look at

these patterns along with the voice recorders and everything else to come up with their hypothesis. >> thanks tom. the voice recorders, you could hear one of the pilots locked out of the cockpit. tapping and knocking and trying to break down the door to get back into the cockpit. what we are learning about what caused that plane to crash. now search crews combing the mountain for the remaining victims. we have the new developments next. technology gives you ol and now technology gives you home security and control in a new and revolutionary way. introducing plug & protect from livewatch security, an easy to use wireless security system customized just for your home. control from any smartphone, tablet, or computer and monitored by professionals 24/7. go to livewatch.com to get plug & protect interactive security delivered to your door. arm or disarm your system from anywhere.

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breaking news this morning new clues into what caused germanwings flight 9525 to crash into the alps. reports claim one of the pilots was locked out of the cockpit. heard on the cockpit recorder trying to get back in. what was his copilot doing? this as we learn new information about who was on board. team coverage breaking down the latest starts now. welcome back to "early start." i'm christine romans. john berman is in washington, d.c. this week. here is our top story today. a blockbuster revelation that puts investigators one step closer to figure out what caused the germanwings flight to crash into the alps. one of the pilots on flight 9525 was locked out of the cockpit. a senior official telling the new york times, the pilot can be

heard on the cockpit voice recorder first tapping and knocking and trying to smash the door down. turning to erin mclaughlin at the staging area in the french alps. erin no word or sound or indication of what was going on inside the cockpit and the other captain, pilot, did not open the door. >> reporter: that's right. media reports, christine, leading to more questions than we have answers at this hour. we don't know why one pilot got up and left the cockpit. we also don't know why the other pilot did not let him back inside. so far, french authorities not commenting on those reports. publicly the most they said about their analysis of the cockpit voice recorder is they were listening and they could hear voices and sounds. we are still waiting for more information from authorities.

we are expecting prosecutors to have a press conference later today. we perhaps will hear more then. meanwhile, a key piece of the puzzle is missing. the flight data recorder. they imagined to recover the casing but the recorder itself it missing. now the emergency workers are looking for that at the crash site. a slow and tedious recovery process. we saw earlier several helicopters land and take off again for the site and staging area behind me. also expected today, the family and friends of the victims. they are being flown in from barcelona and dusseldorf on special lufthansa flights. the idea is to get them as close to their loved ones as possible. >> erin such an interesting development overnight. so much more to learn to put the pieces together. thanks. new details about the 150

victims of the crash. passengers from all over the world, including three americans. officials have not identified one of them. the others were a mother and daughter from the washington, d.c. area. yvonne and emily selke. we have more from suzanne malveaxu. >> reporter: this is hitting close to home for the community. quietly, this family is grieving in the home behind me because of their family members lost. i want to read the family statement. a relative says our family is saddened by the losses of yvonne and emily selke. two caring people. they are asking for privacy at this time. we are learning about them from the community. we know yvonne was an employed at booz allen hamilton.

her daughter emily, this was somebody who was smart and popular. a 4.0 grade point average from high school. she went to drexel university and graduated two years ago with high honors. somebody who was very much loved. her own sorority the gamma cy igma sigma put out a sometime. emily always put others before herself. she also worked for carr places in the hospitality field. they released a statement saying how tragic and how much of a loss this is for the community and for the family. this is something that these two were extremely close. mother and daughter. actually ran a marathon last year together. these were the kinds of things they loved to do. they loved to go to music festivals and hike.

a tight-knit family. raymond selke, he lost his wife and daughter. he has spoken to cnn and he says he appreciates the support. he appreciates the love. he clearly not ready in any way, as you can imagine, to express that on camera or any kind of public way. they are hunkering down. he asked for us to respect his family's privacy. he wants people to know how special his family was. >> so sad. thank you for that. suzanne. we are learning about other passengers dead in the crash. germanwings and officials and 18 countries update them. we know they came from the middle east asia north and south america. all across europe. you saw two pictures of two german opera singers. by far, the largest numbers from spain. the origin of flight 9525 and germany. joining us now from haltern,

germany is cnn's diana magnay. diana, the principal of the school where the teachers and students went said the school has been changed forever. >> reporter: he did. he said that he sent 16 happy students off last week and now this tragedy. 16 students all of whom were around 16 years old and in tenth grade. 14 of them girls, went off to spain on a language exchange. the spanish students were here in the town of haltern last december never to come back. you see the tributes their friends and school mates have been laying on the ground. the memorial has been growing the past few days. a moment of silence at 10:53 local time. the time flight 9525 crashed. held across schools in the

region of north reine. the 150 from 18 different countries as far as we know. the mayor of haltern gave a distraught press conference. let's have a listen to what he told us. >> i'm here and i can talk with people and with the parents and the brothers and sisters. the only thing that i can do is to be here. >> reporter: christine, lufthansa has organized flights for relatives of those killed from both dusseldorf and barcelona to go to a special crisis center in marseille and to be taken as close to the crash site as they possibly can get to help in their grieving

process while investigators try to piece together the clues too why flight 9525 went down. christine. >> thanks for that, diana magnay. yemen erupting. saudi arabia launching air strikes against houthis rebels. u.s. on the sidelines providing intelligence support. senior correspondent nick paton walsh monitoring this from kabul, afghanistan this morning. a tense and tough situation there. nick. >> reporter: this really was a nation that is already in chaos and anarchy now headed into a regional conflict. saudi jets have been cleared. they have taken out houthi air defenses. the weaponry which the houthis tribesmen have taken off.

war planes and surface-to-air missiles and air base as well. the egyptian saying uae and qatar and kuwait voicing support for this. that is vital. these are sunni nations. there is a rift where they are fighting shi'ite groups. houthi are predominately shi'a. that extends the fight in yemen where the president backed by the president of the united states kicked out and fled to the city of aden. it is unclear. that pits these two sides, saudis and houthis against each other in the volatile home of yemen. the u.s. are off the fence. stating they support the saudi move. they are adding support. that puts them on one key side

of this. iranian iranians everyone says they are backing the houthis, they said they condemn the saudi intervention and they don't want the saudis to enter it too far. we are entering a dangerous situation here. we are into a broader issue here that could significantly add to turmoil and volatility if not warfare across the middle east. christine. >> a grim assessment. thank you for bringing it to us. thanks, nick. iraq u.s. war planes launches forces on tikrit. they have been fighting to retake the city for weeks. isis fighters have been holding their own. the pentagon seizing the opportunity to resume a leading role. in mosul, u.s. planes dropping leaflets urging citizens to cooperate with the pending

operation to force isis out. stocking tumbling. alison kosik is here with me. 24 hours ago we said it looks blah. >> now get ready for another ugly day. it will be that way. u.s. stock futures are sitting lower at the moment. yesterday was not a good day for stocks. dow dropping 292 points. erasing all of the gains for the year. s&p fell 1.5%. it is tech stocks that were hit hard. that wound up sending the nasdaq down 2%. far away from the 5,000 level we have been have been watching. >> the weak economic news now means weak economic news. >> the markets valrally from the speed bump but wall street is no longer cheering that bad news that the fed indicated it could raise rates. the big ticket items like cars

fell last month. this comes on the heels of other disappointing indications in the economy. that is fueling concerns about where the momentum is going in the economy. is it starting to slow down. >> some of the big players are lowering the forecast for growth. that means they are concerned. thanks alison kosik. 42 minutes past the hour. rescued from the taliban after five years of captivity. now sergeant bowe bergdahl charged with desertion. the punishment next.

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after investigating the circumstances over his captivity by the taliban, the army has charged bowe bergdahl with desertion. he could face life in prison. cnn's martin savage is following the latest. >> reporter: despite the charges against him, it is expected this will be another typical day for sergeant bowe bergdahl. he has not been taken into custody and not being held. you will remember he came to san antonio last may shortly after released from captivity for two purposes. to get him medically might and put him through reintegration program. it is a program to help p.o.w.s sort of come back to normal life. once he completed that program, he was given a desk job at ft.

sam houston. that has been his life. the u.s. military will say he is treated no differently than any other soldier. the same freedoms and privileges with one exception. whenever he leaves post he is escorted by two soldiers. the military maintains that is for his protection. he will have an article 32 hearings and that will determine whether the evidence is enough to move forward with an actual court martial. christine. >> thank you, martin. martin reports that bowe bergdahl has not seen his parents. he has spoken to them through an inter intermediary. why germanwings flight 9525 has crashed into the mountains.

we have the latest to figure out what was happening inside the lock the cockpit next.

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pilots was locked out of the cockpit as the plane was descent descenting descentingdescentk descending. for hints of what might have happened cnn's tom forman has more. >> reporter: investigators are looking at the final minute of the flight of the germanwings plane and comparing it to other cases they may know about and the cause. if you look at what happened with alaska flight 261 years ago. they had a massive mechanical problem on the plane. let's bring in the last 15 minutes of the flight. they lost the ability to control the pitch of plane. if it went up or down. you can see it was pitching around and they reached a spot where they could no longer do anything and the plane plummeted 18,000 feet in

81 seconds and it crashed with all lives lost. distinctive pattern. how about this flight by swiss air that went in near nova scotia. smoke in the cabin and it broke into a full fire. they tried to deal with that and the attempt at an emergency landing. it did not work. you can see basically they are trying to wrestle with the plane that they wanted to do but the plane would not let it do. then this is the greek airline called helio called flight 322. the crew suffered from hypoxia. the crew passed out. they flew on auto pilot. there was an attempt at the end of the flight attendant who was roused enough to try to fly the plane, but lost control.

it went in on auto pilot to the ground. the pattern is different. very smooth and regular. let's add the germanwings pattern. it too, has that same smooth pattern. does that mean this was a case of hypoxia? the crew could not operate the plane? we don't know that. investigators have to look at the patterns along with the voice records to come up with what happened. >> the big news reports that cockpit was locked. one pilot desperately trying to get in as the plane crashed into the mountain. 54 minutes past the hour. a stunning statistic for you. more than half of middle class kids do not graduate from college. what's holding them back? that's next.

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i want to bring in alison kosik with an early start on your money. what an ugly day futures had yesterday. >> that follows yesterday's tumble when the dow dropped 290 points. that erased all of the gains for 2015. with the dow and s&p 500, that fell 1.5%. tech stocks hit hard. that sent the nasdaq down more than 2%. it is getting farther and farther away from the 5,000 level we were watching closely for a couple of days. >> the expectation for growth. how strong the u.s. economy is growing. worries. >> worries of the overall

growth. the labor market is showing growth, but other concerns of how the rest of the economy is doing. the latest came out yesterday. durable goods orders for refrigerators, cars and computers fell. not a good sign. wall street is winding up to scale back. >> the alarming -- terrifying statistics for any family sending a kid to college. >> more than half of the middle class kids who start college don't finish. for families between $46,000 and $56,000, only 40% of kids had bachelor's degrees eight years later. they say they are not prepared academically or financially. some leave with associate degrees or certificates. you see the middle class lost in

the shuffle. >> you hear about the student loan problem. that is the number one problem. a lot of the families in the income bracket, if you don'tt't degree you still have to pay. thank you. "early start" continues right now. locked out of the cockpit. reports of one of the pilots of flight 9525 could be heard desperately trying to get back in the cockpit before the plane crashed into the alps. he was locked out. this morning, the mystery deepens. what was the other pilot doing inside the cockpit? this as we learn new information about those on board. we are covering the big story this morning. welcome to "early start." i'm christine romans. it is thursday march 26th. 5:00 a.m. in the east. a revelation tha