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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

At Least 5 Killed in Philadelphia Train Derailment. Aired 4- 4:30a ET

Aired May 13, 2015 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:13] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking this morning -- a deadly Amtrak train derailment in Philadelphia. At least five people killed. More than 50 injured. Investigators are on the scene, trying this morning, to figure out what went so wrong.

We have live coverage on this big developing story ahead.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Christine Romans. Nice to see you all this morning. It is Wednesday, May 13th. It is 4:00 a.m. exactly in the East.

Breaking overnight, that devastating train derailment in Philadelphia. Five people, five people killed. Officials say another 53 hospitalized. There are six people, six of those passengers right now in critical condition.

Amtrak Northeast Regional Number 188 from Washington, D.C. to New York crashed around 9:30 last night, derailed around 9:30 last night, carrying 238 passengers and five crew. Seven cars and the train's engine overturned, crushed and torn apart by the force.

The pictures really, really spell out the devastation there. Now, the cause not yet known.

This is how the city's mayor and fire chief described the scene.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR MICHAEL NUTTER, PHILADELPHIA: We do not know what happened here. We do not know why this happened. There is no information about that. We're not going to speculate about it.

DERRICK SAWYER, PHILADELPHIA FIRE COMMISSIONER: I've never seen anything so devastating. They're clearly in bad shape. You can see that they completely, completely derailed from the truck. They've been destroyed. The aluminum shell has been destroyed and they're overturned completely. Again, I don't want to speculate on the cars but it is a devastating scene.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: What should have been a routine -- a routine journey from Washington, D.C. to New York City, anything but.

Our Rene Marsh is there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: All right. Well, I can tell you all survivors have been removed. And at this hour, this is officially a recovery operation. As you take a look behind me, you can see that it is still very much an active scene, keeping in mind this all happened last night at around 9:30.

But you still see lots of fire trucks in the distance. We do know that the crime scene unit, they are there. They are photographing the scene. And we know that the medical examiner's office, it just left a short time ago. So still a very active scene.

Now, we did hear from the mayor around 1:00 this morning. At this hour, the tally is at least five dead. But in the mayor's own words, he says, at this point, they can't say that everyone has been accounted for.

Just a recap, this is Amtrak's Northeast Regional Train 188. It left Washington, D.C. It was bound for New York City. And when it got into this area here in Philadelphia, this is the Port Richmond neighborhood, as that train was taking the curve, that is when passengers say things went so terribly wrong.

As far as the investigation goes, we don't know the cause. We do not know what caused all of this. We know that the NTSB will be here on the site tomorrow. We did see members from the Federal Railroad Association, they're onsite, as we mentioned. Crime scene investigators there as well.

When NTSB gets there, they're going to want to look for specific things. They're going to want to look at the tracks. They're going to want to also get ahold of the train's recorders. Those recorders will be able to tell them how fast was this train was going, were brakes applied.

So, those are all going to be very critical information to help them figure out, was there something wrong with the train? Was there something wrong with the trade? Was there something that the crew did not do correctly?

Also, investigators are going to want to talk to the crew. We don't flow what the condition is at this hour, but that will be a critical interview as well. We also know that the FBI, they were sent here to the scene. But, at this point, there's no indication that there's any link or this was caused by terrorism.

But many investigations are ongoing to really try to get to the bottom of what went wrong in this deadly train crash.

Back to you, guys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Rene Marsh, thank you so much for that. Again, we'll continue to update you as we get information about just what might have gone wrong there and the numbers of people who are hurt.

BERMAN: You know, Northeast corridor is the busiest stretch of rail in North America, 11.5 million people ride between Washington, D.C. and Boston, every year. Incredible. Thousands of passengers per day. You can imagine how terrifying it was for them.

I want you to listen to one man, and his description of the moment that the train derailed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[04:05:00] JEREMY WLADIS, PASSENGER ON DERAILED AMTRAK TRAIN (via telephone): The train starts doing funny things. And then it just gradually gets worse and worse. And just like chaos erupts. And things start flying, stones, laptops, and then people, seats, trays start flying. You hear bumping and you hear like metal mangling.

But it happened so quickly, like you didn't even know what was going on. And the next thing I know, I look up, and there's two people in the luggage rack above my head. Two women got catapulted into the -- and we didn't -- I didn't even see it happen. I didn't even know.

And the train was like at a 30 degree angle down where I was. And I was trying to like wedged on to the window underneath a tray and the seat was turned. I mean, bags, shoes, everything, just thrown, just complete chaos.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: We also spoke to a man sitting in the back of the train, he told us in a matter of seconds, the smooth ride abruptly ended and felt as though the train hit something.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANIEL WENTRIN, PASSENGER ON DERAILED AMTRAK TRAIN (via telephone): Almost about six rows from the back of the train, just sitting, everything was normal, and then, the major impact. Just by the time you come to the senses of what's up, I'd been thrown on to the floor in the aisle. And just chaos, spinning around, the chairs are built to change direction, to go from one end to the other. So, they've all come loose. Chairs are flying around, people are flying around, bags -- pretty chaotic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Officials say there is no information yet on the cause of this crash. You can see -- I think I was just told these are live pictures right now of that scene. You can just see the scale and the devastation there, the twisted metal. Those cars just turned and bent.

An NTSB go team is due on the scene this morning.

A former Transportation Department Inspector General Mary Schiavo said investigators will certainly look into how fast that train was going.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARY SCHIAVO, FORMER DOT INSPECTOR GENERAL (via telephone): The location of the cars and the fact that one is perpendicular, you know, it does give us clues already, and certainly, we don't know the cars. But given that they ended up in that situation, where it's perpendicular and it's very, very mangled, you know, that's not a slow derailment. You know, it's hard to, you know, estimate that kind of speed, and it was headed into the curve. But that's an awful lot of damage if it was a slow moving train and it simply derailed off the track going around a curve.

So, the NTSB, as soon as they arrive and they're there, I mean, they will have clues almost immediately. They've just done this so many times. But the situation, the scene that you're showing right now on the scene, the one car is very mangled, and perpendicular to the others -- I mean, that's a little more than just derailment going around the curve.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: A couple of hours until daylight, but you can see there's a pretty active scene there right now.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf visiting the crash overnight, expressing his grief over this tragedy and his support for the rescue efforts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOVERNOR TOM WOLF (D), PENNSYLVANIA: It just sounds horrible. I mean, the human tragedy, the devastation, I can't imagine. We stand ready to help in whatever way we can. We're in support of what the city and Amtrak are doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Amtrak responding this morning, saying, quote, "We are deeply saddened by the loss of life from Amtrak Northwest Regional Train 188 that derailed north of Philadelphia Tuesday evening. We ask the news media to be respectful of our customers, our employees and their families."

Amtrak says individuals who have question about friends and families on this particular train should call the Amtrak incident hot line. It has also been pushing people to its blog which was overwhelmed with traffic and went down at times. Today, there will be no Amtrak service, folks, between New York and Philly. Several other routes will now have modified service. So, please, please check, because commuting and travel in the Northeast on the Amtrak line, on the Amtrak hub, will be disrupted.

BERMAN: Inconvenience is not the main story.

ROMANS: Absolutely.

BERMAN: The main tragedy is a loss of life. At least five people dead. Six people in critical condition, 50 more people injured.

But as you say this is the busiest stretch of rail in North America. More than 2,000 railcars ride on this piece of track every single day. And today, there will be none.

We'll continue to follow the breaking news out of Philadelphia. Again, at least five people killed in this train derailment. Pictures are stunning.

You will hear from passengers who describe the chaos -- next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:13:08] BERMAN: All right. The breaking news this morning: a deadly Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia. You're looking at live pictures right now of the scene on the ground there. That, folks, that piece of twisted metal is a railcar right now. So much damage.

At least five people were killed. At least 53 others have been transported to local hospitals. Officials tell us that you six of those injured right now are in critical condition.

The city's fire commissioner is stunned by the devastation at the scene. I want you to listen to him describe the rescue effort.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAWYER: We used our tools to get to the people who could not self- evacuate. There were several people trapped. Again, train cars are overturned. They're in horrible shape.

There's a bunch of debris down there. It's a dangerous situation for responder, even more dangerous for the riders down there, but we were able to get them out with hydraulic tools, yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: A routine trip from Washington, D.C. to New York cut short there by that derailment. One of the train passengers on what should have been a routine trip, he was able to walk away from the derailment. He said he can't believe it actually happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAX ELFMAN, PASSENGER ON DERAILED AMTRAK TRAIN: I'm still like, the concept feels like a dream, like how could this have happened? You always read about things, or see this on news like, oh, a plane crashes, a train derails, you never actually think it's going to happen to you. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Think about it, a lot of people get on a train, they take their big clunky shoes off. They unpack everything. So, these people just jarred from moments of calm into just chaos. So unprepared.

We're hearing from so many passengers on that train who did survive. Listen to Janna D'Ambrisi describe the moment the car went off the tracks. We should remind, there's no official cause of the crash. But she says she believes the train went into a turn quickly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANNA D'AMBRISI, PASSENGER ON DERAILED AMTRAK TRAIN (via telephone): So, I was sitting in the second to last car on the right side of the train in the aisle seat, and I was reading my books, everything seemed normal.

[04:15:07] Suddenly, it felt like we were going a little too fast around the curve, is what it felt like, and then there was a jolt. And immediately, you could tell that the train derailed. People were panicked initially, thrown into a girl next to me sitting in the window seat, the train started to tip that way, to the right. People on the other side of the train started to fall on us.

But some people must have fallen above me, because somebody's calf hit me in the side of the head. So she must have landed in the luggage rack above me. But I just held on to her leg, and the girl next to me sort of bowed my head. And I was just kind of praying, like, please make it stop, please make it stop, because it felt like we were gliding along for a little while there.

And I don't know if it only felt that way or maybe only a few seconds, but I was just praying the train didn't tip any more. I was just thinking we were going to fall all the way on our side. We did eventually stop at the tilt, and everyone was screaming. So, I stood up, I realized I wasn't hurt. Thank God.

So, immediately, I was asking everybody around me, are you OK, are you OK?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Now, a team of NTSB investigators will be on the scene in Philadelphia at first light, trying to determine exactly what caused this Amtrak train to go off the rails.

One expert telling CNN speed is likely a factor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHIAVO (via telephone): As soon as the NTSB downloads those train's black boxes, they have the speed of the train and all the controls of the train. They even have where, this is not a situation that will be significant to impact for them, but they even have when the train blow its whistle, and there's very specific Federal Rail Administration regulations about where you do that and the speeds.

And that black box is very much like an airplane black box, and that will have all the information. So we, literally, by the time they get it off the train and get it back and downloaded to D.C., by the afternoon, the NTSB will know. But that -- the mangling of that car looks like a fairly high speed derailment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The United States doesn't exactly have a ton of high speed rail. But, you know, the northeast corridor is one area where trains can exceed speeds of 100 miles an hour. This was not an Acela, one of the high speed trains but, you know, the trains can go fast on the stretch.

ROMANS: Before Congress, Amtrak officials have complained in recent years that the infrastructure in the Northeast corridor needs reinvestment and more investment, too. That's been one of the sort of complaints. We don't know what caused this, but when you think about where you can go fast, where there's an infrastructure that is used or they need upgraded, a lot of different factors they'll be looking at here.

BERMAN: Again, you're looking at live pictures from the scene 30th station in Philadelphia, where this train derailed. Still, a remarkable vision right now. Seven cars on this train. It was train number 188 completely derailed. As you can see, at least one is ripped in half, others overturned, so badly damaged.

Emergency crews with flash lights. They've been on the scene all night. A little over 300 police and firefighters arrived in minutes.

Listen to this Red Cross official explaining the response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY TORNETTA, AMERICAN RED CROSS EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA: I have to say, you know, as I resident of the Philadelphia area, I'm so proud of the way our city responded. There's first responders everywhere, just doing an amazing job out there the night. It's such a tragic situation. It's such a powerful thing everybody coming together and working together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: All right. Again, that's a Philadelphia train derailment. Five dead, at least 60 people injured, dozens in the hospital. We'll continue to follow those developments from Philadelphia all morning long.

Plus, dozens dead. And a U.S. military helicopter, a U.S. military helicopter is missing after a devastating earthquake in Nepal. We'll have the latest on that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [04:22:47] BERMAN: Breaking news: deadly Amtrak train derailment in Philadelphia. These are live pictures right now from the scene, where you can see rescue crews working the scene. Right now, everybody has been recovered from it.

At least five people killed, 53 others taken to the hospital, six of those injured are in critical condition. Amtrak Northeast Regional Train Number 188, it was traveling from Washington to New York. It derailed just north of 30th Street Station in Philadelphia.

The mayor of Philadelphia says at this point what caused the derailment is unclear. What is clear, and you can see some of the aftermath here, what is clear is that there was just complete chaos.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NUTTER: We have train cars that are completely overturned on their side, ripped apart. It is a devastating scene down there. We walked the entire length of the train area, and the engine completely separated from the rest of the train. And one of the cars is perpendicular to the rest of the cars. It's unbelievable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: And officials also on ground saying they're not ready to say everyone is accounted for yet here. Passengers managed to walk away from the scene, also describing it as just a frantic scene.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I helped might mom get off, that was my first priority. Luckily, I'm still here, I'm still walking. I got really lucky. And so, I figured I would do my best to help, because I could see everyone -- I could see the blood on people's faces, they can't move, their knees were out. I just tried to do my best to help people get out of the car, because it was smoking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: And -- yes, go ahead.

BERMAN: Sorry. I mean, such a busy rail line, tens of thousands of people ride this every day. So, there were a lot of questions, friends and family of people, who ride this train.

Amtrak set up a special hotline for people who need information. That number is 1-800-523-9101. Of course, we're going to keep you updated on this breaking developing story all morning long.

[04:25:01] But right now, I want to give you an update on some of the headlines. At least 83 people are dead following the 7.2 magnitude quake in Nepal's border with China. Seventeen of the dead are in China. At least one of those killed was in China. The rest of the reported deaths, the vast majority, there could be more, in Nepal, where a U.S. military helicopter also missing while supporting the relief efforts there. Pentagon spokesman says the helicopter radioed that they were having

some kind of fuel problem before they lost contact. Search and rescue efforts are under way this morning.

ROMANS: Breaking news out of Pakistan this morning, police are saying six gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on a bus in Karachi, killing 42 people, wounding at least 20 others. The bus was carrying men, women and children from the Shiite sect that's often prosecuted by the extremists. Splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for that attack.

BERMAN: Breaking news overnight from North Korea, word that supreme leader Kim Jong-un had his defense chief publicly executed following an apparent show or alleged show of disloyalty. According to South Korean media, Hyon Yong-chol he was executed for dosing off at an event at a meeting. Report says he was killed by anti-aircraft fire in front of hundreds of spectators.

ROMANS: All right. Breaking news this morning: a horrific Amtrak train derailment in Philadelphia, at least five dead. You've got dozens injured, six in critical condition. An NTSB team on its way.

Live team coverage after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)