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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Train Hit 106 MPH Before Derailing; Five Of Seven Killed In Crash Identified; No Sign Of Missing U.S. Helicopter; American Killed In Afghan Hotel Attack; Stock Futures Higher. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired May 14, 2015 - 05:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to EARLY START everyone. I'm John Berman. About 30 minutes after the hour right now. Christine Romans is off this morning.

[05:30:02] The investigation into the crash of Amtrak Train 188 in Philadelphia focused on speed this morning. The National Transportation Safety Board has recovered the black box from the wreckage.

NTSB officials say the Washington to New York train hit a tight curve on the north side of Philadelphia traveling more than 100 miles per hour. That's double the posted speed in that stretch.

The engineer has now been identified as Brandon Bostian of New York. He slammed on the emergency brakes only seconds before the engine in seven cars derailed. At least seven people died in this crash and more than 200 were injured.

Eight victims this morning still listed in critical condition. For the latest on the investigation, let's bring in CNN's Rene Marsh. Good morning, Rene.

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. We know that this train was going 106 miles per hour along these tracks that you see behind me. The speed limit as it approached that curve, 50 miles per hour.

Now according to a law enforcement official right after this crash, the engineer of the train told detectives he didn't recall his speed. After when detectives attempted to interview him further, he refused to answer questions according to a source and left with an attorney.

We do know now, though, that this attorney is speaking out. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ATTORNEY ROBERT GOGGIN: He remembers going through the area generally. Has absolutely no recollection of the incident or anything unusual. The next thing he recalls is being thrown around, coming to, finding his bag, getting his cell phone and dialing 911.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ARSH: Well, investigators suspected from the very beginning that speed was a factor. They say because of the way the wreckage was laid out on the tracks as well as the damage to the cars.

But still, there are so many questions, although we know the train was going faster than it should have been going, we still do not know why. Was this a function of mechanical failure? Were the brakes not working or is this human error?

Meaning perhaps was the engineer distracted? We do know that police are in the process of trying to get a search warrant to get his cell phone as well as his cell phone records to try and determine was this person was on the phone or distracted in some way at the time of the incident -- John.

BERMAN: So we've heard from the engineer or at least learned about the engineer. What about the train's conductor? Have investigators had a chance to talk to him yet?

MARSH: That is another key person that detectives say they want to speak to, to find out what was happening in the seconds and minutes leading up to this derailment. At this point, though, detectives have not been able to speak to the conductor simply because of his medical condition. He is not in any shape to be interviewed. So they are waiting for the moment when they are able to ask questions.

BERMAN: All right, Rene Marsh, that will come probably in the days ahead. I appreciate you being there for us on the ground in Philadelphia.

The mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter, he places the blame for the derailment squarely on the engineer shoulders, Brandon Bostian. But the NTSB team leader on the ground says that that conclusion is premature.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR MICHAEL NUTTER, PHILADELPHIA: Clearly he was reckless and irresponsible in his actions. I don't know what was going on with him and I don't know what was going on in the cab. But there is really no excuse that could be offered literally unless he had a heart attack.

ROBERT SUMWALT, NTSB BOARD MEMBER: I'm going to distance myself from such remarks. We are here to conduct a fact based non-emotional investigation and to make comments like that is inflammatory at this point. We want to find out what happened so we can prevent it from happening again.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Do you think the mayor was wrong in saying that?

SUMWALT: Well, you will not hear the NTSB making comments like that. We want to get the facts before we start making judgments.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: The 33-year-old engineer, Brandon Bostian, has been with Amtrak for nine years first as a train conductor. He became an engineer in 2010.

Of the seven known killed in this crash, we have the names of five, Jim Gaines, a video software architect for the "Associated Press," Derrick Griffith, dean of Student Affairs at Medgar Evers College in New York, Rachel Jacobs, a tech company CEO, Abid Gilani, a Wells Fargo executive and a 20-year-old U.S. Naval Academy mid shipman, Justin Zemser. His family is grieving.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN ZEMSER, MOTHER OF NAVY MIDSHIPMAN KILLED IN CRASH: Our son was Midshipman Justin Zemser. He was born on March 25th, 1995. He was his high school valedictorian and just finishing up his second year as midshipman at the United States Naval Academy.

He was a loving son, nephew and cousin. This tragedy has shocked us in the worst way. We wish to spend time grieving with close family and friends.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[05:35:12] BERMAN: One passenger does remain missing, Minnesota chemical company executive, Robert Gildersleeve. His family says he boarded the train, but so far his whereabouts are unknown.

When the seven passenger cars derailed, some of the cars were left standing almost upright. Others torn nearly to shreds by the force of what happened. The passengers inside the compartments experiences varied just as much.

Scores were able to walk away, but some describe scenes that are just terrible.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAX HELFMAN, PASSENGER ON DERAILED AMTRAK TRAIN: People were everywhere. There were suitcases everywhere, suitcases falling on top of people. The chairs actually dislodged. Some of the chairs had actually fallen on people. People bleeding from their faces, broken bones, broken legs, broken arms, anything you can really imagine, that's what happened.

GABY RUDY, PASSENGER ON DERAILED AMTRAK TRAIN: So the person behind me lost an arm unfortunately. A lot of the women in front of me were bleeding from their heads. That's about it that I saw on the train. But at the hospital, there were a lot of very seriously injured people unfortunately.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I started hearing people, I was on the side. Someone told me I was delirious. These shoes are not my shoes. A lady gave me her shoes.

CALEB BONHAM, PASSENGER ON DERAILED AMTRAK TRAIN: I was in the very last train and for me it was a very sudden incident. It started off with a bit of shaking. I was sort of minding my business in my world listening to my iPod.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you didn't hear anything. You're listening to music.

BONHAM: I've heard reports that people have heard things. I heard reports people recognized a buckling sound or how fast the train was going. I was dazed off listening to my music. All of a sudden, felt a shake and saw the computer shaking and I was on the other side and it was black.

To me it was that quick, absolute tragedy overall. We were fortunate to walk out. I have seen some very sad things. Some young ladies on the train that have lost their teeth because of what happened. They were bloodied on the train. Women were stuck on the ground and a group of people really trying to help them lift these ladies up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Unclear at this point when that section of track could reopen for travel. NTSB investigators are expected to remain on-site for up to a week. Two of the cars remain on the scene for a 3D laser scan.

The rest of the cars were removed to a secure facility for further investigation. Amtrak service suspended still between New York and Philadelphia. There are some modified services in the north east including between Washington and Philadelphia and between New York and Boston.

Tuesday's crash as all accidents do raises questions about safety. CNN Money correspondent, Cristina Alesci is here with that.

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: It turns out trains are actually pretty safe. CNN Money calculated how many people are killed for every 1 billion passenger miles on different modes of transportation.

Motorcycles are by far the most dangerous, cars, 33,000 people die in car accidents every year. That equals to about six deaths for every 1 billion passenger miles. Amtrak and commuter railroads are much safer than cars.

The safest form of transportation, commercial airplanes. Small planes or air taxis are responsible for most deaths in that category. If we want to make trains safer, we have to spend more money.

John, we talked about this. Technology could have helped here. We know that the technology to slow a train down could have been implemented and maybe prevented this accident from happening.

BERMAN: There are $5 billion to put that in place in all the tracks through the north east. Cristina Alesci, thanks so much.

We will continue to follow the latest on the Amtrak crash all morning long. But this morning, there is still no trace of the U.S. military helicopter missing after the latest deadly earthquake in Nepal. We will go to the ground there live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:42:55] BERMAN: The breaking news this morning, investigators looking at Tuesday night's train derailment in Philadelphia now focused on excessive speed as the cause. Officials say the train hit that tight curve on Philadelphia's north side at 106 miles per hour.

That is more than twice the posted speed allowed there. The death toll from the crash now stands at seven. More than 200 people were injured and eight of them this morning still in critical condition.

We have news this morning from Nepal hit by so much devastation over the last few weeks, at least two major earthquakes. This morning, a desperate search by foot and by air is finding no sign of a missing U.S. military helicopter.

The crew was helping with relief efforts when it lost contact with the ground. Six U.S. Marines and two service members from Nepal were on board.

We want to bring in CNN's Will Ripley, who is live from the base of operations for the search. He is in Kathmandu. Good morning, Will.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, behind me an Indian helicopter is preparing to take off and head back into the search zone, but as the hours pass with no visual sign of the U.S. Marine helicopter, they are now going to be relying heavily on the ground search, which is happening right now.

There are 400 Nepalese soldiers that are hiking through very difficult terrain in the Himalayans. They are also on boats scouring rivers and mountains as they try to locate any sign of this helicopter carrying six Marines and two Nepalese soldiers.

It has been missing with no visual trace and no radio communications from the crew as well. Everybody out here is trying to remain positive, but it is growing increasingly difficult.

In just a few minutes from now, we are expecting the Nepali prime minister to come to the area. One of the things that we would like to ask him about in addition to the search for the missing helicopter is much of the bureaucracy that has delayed relief and assistance in getting to people here.

There have been a lot of complaints from the Red Cross and other NGOs that because of bureaucratic difficulties with the Nepali government, assistance, food, water, medicines, supplies and personnel is not getting to the tens of thousands of people who are desperately in need right now -- John.

BERMAN: They so badly need that assistance. Will Ripley on the ground for us in Kathmandu, thanks so much.

[05:45:05] A U.S. citizen among at least 14 people killed in a terrifying hotel attack in Kabul. Three gunmen stormed the Park Palace Guest House Hotel Wednesday night trapping more than 50 people inside.

A five-hour standoff after Afghan Special Forces killed all three attackers. In just the last few hours, the Taliban has claimed responsibility for this attack. The identities of the victims not yet released.

A senior Secret Service agent has been implicated in the drunk driving incident at the White House is retiring. Officials say Marc Connolly, the number two agent on President Obama's protective detail is leaving the agency.

That news comes just as an inspector general report on the incident is being released. The report says Connolly and a second agent, George Oglvy had been drinking and allegedly drove through a secured area outside the White House disrupting an active bomb investigation. Oglvy remains on administrative leave.

I want to take a look at what is coming up on "NEW DAY." Chris Cuomo is on the ground at the crash scene in Philadelphia. Good morning, Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": John, three big points of focus for us here this morning. First is the idea of speed being, what was the catalyst for the crash? Investigators are going very slowly on it. The mayor here, Michael Nutter, was getting out in front of it talking about the engineer and what investigators believe they know early on about the speed.

Largely in part from that surveillance video that CNN had this morning, but also from the black box. If the train was going so fast into the curve, which seems probable from common sense of how terribly destroyed the cars were. What does that mean?

And more importantly for investigators, why did that happen? Is it human error or systems? You have the issue of the unaccounted for. It sounds suspicious. Investigators tell us it is not about people needing to be located at the crash scene, but the travel on trains, mismatched tickets.

People who did not take the train or people gotten on and not presented tickets at the station. Whatever the reason, there are still people unaccounted. We will cover that.

And there is this bigger issue, John, which is even if this train crashed because of human error. That doesn't mean it had to happen. There are safety systems in place that are not. There's infrastructure that other countries have that the United States does not, despite the money that gets dumped in Amtrak and rail system. Why?

It matters. Even if this is just about the engineer, John, it matters. I would be remiss if not to mention the small window of joy I had in my day yesterday. Watching celebrity "Jeopardy" and seeing a man I have known for 15 years show the rest of the world what I have known so long.

His shirt and tie decision today aside, John Berman, owning celebrity "Jeopardy." A proud moment for those of us who know you -- John.

BERMAN: Thank you very much, Chris. I appreciate it. Great work down there in Philadelphia.

CUOMO: Right here.

BERMAN: We have new information this morning about the deadly Amtrak derailment. Why investigators say they knew from the start that this train must have been speeding.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:52:00] BERMAN: Latest on the deadly Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia. Federal investigators have recovered the black box from the wreckage. The New York bound train was traveling more than 100 miles an hour when it derailed. That is more than twice the posted speed limit.

The engineer, Brandon Bostian, of Queens, has no recollection of the crash. That's according to his attorney. CNN's Tom Foreman has more on the investigation.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The reason investigators knew they had to look at excessive speed early were things of this like the surveillance video. When you look at the train rushing past and you know the size of the locomotive and the cars, you can calculate the speed.

It was clear that just 200 yards short of the point of impact, it was going faster than it should have been. I'll bring in a model of the train to talk about this. The locomotive is heavy about 97 metric tons. That is pushing up quarter million pounds.

If it is traveling 50 miles an hour as it should have been here, all of the physics work out fine. Yes, there is force to the outside of the curve just like a car going around the corner quickly, but it is all balanced out.

Push it up to 100 miles an hour, and that force becomes greater. Maybe up here with a low center of gravity with heavy amount of weight sitting low, it doesn't tip over. Not necessarily the same back there.

Go back to the passenger cars and that's where we had passengers describing the feeling of the cars flying up off the rails. We know that's possible because it may have had a different center of gravity.

In Spain, this train was supposed to go 50 miles an hour and it was over 100 and look at it slinging off the tracks. That is why the investigators knew they had to look at the possibility of the train going too fast.

BERMAN: All right, thanks to Tom Foreman for that.

There is a new recall dealing with potentially fatal air bag issues. We will tell you which cars are affected next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:57:30] BERMAN: All right, time now for an EARLY START on your money. Cristina Alesci is here with that.

ALESCI: U.S. stock futures are up right now. You could see a reversal from three days of losses if that holds. I'll make you hungry, John. One stock to watch, Shake Shack is up more than 7 percent right now. The burger chain crushed Wall Street expectation. Revenue grew 56 percent in the last year alone. I know that's not all on your orders.

BERMAN: Almost.

ALESCI: All right, a little bit of a serious story. Even more recalls today over possibly faulty Takata air bags. Honda is recalling almost 5 million cars worldwide. That covers 14 models made between 2002 and 2008.

Yesterday, Toyota recalled 5 million cars, Nissan, 1.6 million for the same reason. Tens of millions of cars have already been recalled. At least five deaths are linked to air bags. This is a story that just keeps on going.

We will have to see how these carmakers respond because you know recalls were not taken seriously for many years. Now people are starting to pay attention.

BERMAN: Cristina Alesci, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

We have new information on what caused the deadly train derailment in Philadelphia. "NEW DAY" starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These two women were catapulted up into the luggage rack.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everyone was just gushing blood. Everyone was screaming. It was such a state of panic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This train was going 106 miles an hour in a 50- mile-an-hour zone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The man at the center this is that engineer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Clearly he was reckless and irresponsible.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To make comments like that is inflammatory at this point.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Positive train control, it's a very expensive braking system.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was not in place in this portion of the track. If it had been this crash may well not have happened. (END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: It is Thursday, May 14th, 6:00 in the East. As you see Alisyn and Mich are in NEW YORK and I'm in Philadelphia covering breaking developments in the Amtrak crash.

We certainly do have new information and some concerns that demand attention. Speed is the buzz word right now. Why was this train going more than twice the speed allowed around what turned out to be a fateful curve.

The train's engineer Brandon Bostian initially told police he couldn't recall how fast he was going and now his lawyer says he can't remember the crash. That raises a question how can that be if investigators say it was he, the engineer, who applied the emergency brakes right before the train derailed.

[06:00:02] Could this tragedy have been prevented? That is also a big question that demands attention. There are safety systems that could be in place that aren't. So we have every angle covered, especially with the death toll now up to seven and people still unaccounted for.