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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Amtrak Train Derails, 5 Dead; At Least 83 Dead in 7.3 Nepal Quake; Report: North Korea Defense Chief Executed. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired May 13, 2015 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:00] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Investigators on the scene trying to figure out what went so wrong. We'll have live coverage of our big story begins right now.

Good morning, and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm John Berman. It is Wednesday, May 13th, 5:00 a.m. in the East. We welcome in viewers in the United States and around the world.

Breaking overnight: devastating train derailment. You're looking at live pictures right now. Five people killed. Local hospitals say they have treated at least 136 passengers, including at least six in critical condition right now.

Amtrak Northeast Regional Number 188 from Washington to New York crashed around 9:30 last night. It was carrying 238 passengers and five crew.

Look, this is the busiest section of rail in North America. Seven cars and the train's engine overturned. They were crushed. They were just torn apart bit force. Right now, officials say they do not believe terrorism was involved. However, the cause not yet fully known.

(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 completely.

The aluminum shell has been destroyed and they're overturned completely. Again, I don't want to speculate on the cause but it is a devastating scene.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Busiest stretch of rail in Northeast. You could imagine, about 9:00 last night, that would have been full of commuters, people taking a trip from Washington to New York. It just cleared the Philly station, John. People are probably dosing, or they're watching a movie, or they're reading. As you know, there's an awful lot of stuff, debris, luggage, even bodies flying through the compartments, people were saying.

CNN's Sara Sidner is at the derailment site. She's got the latest on that.

Sara, when you think about what happens when you get on an Amtrak from Washington to New York. You probably take off your shoes. You probably open your laptop. You've thrown your bag or bags in the compartment above.

There's a lot of stuff flying around through that train.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. I mean, you're not wearing a seat belt. Sometimes, people are able to lie down across the seats comfortably. It was an evening -- you know, an evening trip.

You know, we heard from some of the folks inside, some of the passengers inside, just how they were feeling during all of this, and what they felt as they were coming around the curve. And I want to give you a look, because we've made it on to the tracks. And we're standing right next to the tracks where this train was traveling. You can see the train is still there. You can see the last car there leaning way over to its right.

You can also see the curve there. We heard from some of the passengers that they felt themselves going around that curve. And that's when things seemed to go all wrong.

Passengers talking about the fact that there were all sorts of things, you know, basically flying through the cars. There's seven is total cars that derailed. We've been watching all morning as you can see there, it's happening again now, the investigators are coming out with flashlights looking at the tracks, looking at the cars.

We've seen canine dogs going into the cars. We've seen firefighters standing out, clearly looking for -- making sure there's no one on the train.

The last information that we got several hours from authorities saying they still have not been able to account for all of the passengers -- disturbing, of course, to the families, wondering the status of their loved ones. We do know that most people were able to walk off this train to safety. Many went to hospitals to get checked out, bruises, broken bones. But there were five people who did not make it.

We also talked to people and listened to some of the people who were inside of that train, guys.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOAN ELFMAN, PASSENGER ON DERAILED AMTRAK TRAIN: We were just on the train and, all of a sudden, it started to shake. And we were in the front seat. And this huge red suitcase just came flying at me.

Our train was actually on its side, so it pushed me on to the side of the train. It hit my chest, I think I have a few fractured ribs, I'm a nurse. But, you know, I tried to help anybody who is -- there's many injured people on the train, and they're very, very upset.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: We're also told that there was six people at last count that were in critical condition. And, you know, about 50 people injured who went to area hospitals. The Red Cross has set up an area for families to wait so that they can get word about their loved ones. But this was a harrowing night. And all night long, we've been seeing investigators, crews, firefighters, police out here dealing at the scene.

Back to you, guys.

ROMANS: Sara, we know daylight is about an hour and ten minutes. It looks as though they're still out there in the wreckage, along the crash, with flash lights and big other lights, essentially as the investigation has begun?

[05:05:10] SIDNER: That's right. And we are expecting to see the National Transportation Safety Board out here. This is going to turn into a full-blown investigation with both local and national authorities who will come out and try to re-create the scene. And try to figure out exactly what it was that caused this train to derail. In the meantime, those who have been injured are getting treatment at area hospitals as we mentioned.

We also talked to some of the residents who live around here. One of them told us they're used to hearing this train go back and forth on a regular basis. And this time, it said it sounded really loud to them as it was hitting this corner. They said it sounded what appeared to be screeching.

Another resident told us that it sounded like metal colliding and ripping against each other. If you look at some of these images of these seven cars, one of them is almost unrecognizable as a train part. It looks like it is a ball of metal. It is completely mangled. I imagine that's where a lot of the really bad injuries or perhaps some of the deaths happened.

ROMANS: Sara, one of the things that struck me was some 200, 300 first responders, police and firefighters, so many injured, Sara, that they were putting injured passengers into their squad cars, into their own cars, and driving them to the hospital?

SIDNER: Yes, it's amazing to see. When we first got on the scene, there were dozens of firefighters, dozens of truck out here, an unusual scene. It was hard to see down the street, there were so many lights going on.

Now, we noticed that a lot of those trucks have left. So it appears that perhaps everyone is out of the train. We haven't got that officially. We haven't seen many people searching the cars in the last half our or so. But we're still waiting to hear word. The last we heard from officials is that not all passengers were accounted for -- guys.

ROMANS: Sara Sidner, thank you so much. We'll let you get back to your reporting there on the scene of that train derailment.

Other passengers on the scene had equally hair-raising experiences. Listen to this man's vivid description of the moment the train derailed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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 flown, just complete chaos.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: We also spoke to a man who was sitting in the back of the train. In a matter of seconds, he said that smooth ride abruptly ended. And it felt to him as if the train hit something.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANIEL WENTRIN, PASSENGER ON DERAILED AMTRAK TRAIN (via telephone): I must have been 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 happening, 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 were flying around, people are flying around, bags -- pretty chaotic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Officials say there's no information yet on the cause of that crash. An NTSB go-team due on the scene any moment now.

Former Transportation Department Inspector General Mary Schiavo says investigators will certainly look at just how fast that train was going.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MARY SCHIAVO, FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (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.

[05:10:03] So, the NTSB, as soon as they arrive and they're there -- I mean, they will have clues almost immediately.

And they've just done this so many times. But the situation, the scene that you're showing right now on the screen, 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)

BERMAN: We could get answers fairly quickly as soon as the investigators do get on the scene.

The Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf, he visited the crash site overnight to express this grief over the tragedy and to support the huge rescue effort.

(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: We don't know the cause of the crash yet. But Amtrak has said the infrastructure on the Northeast corridor desperately needs maintenance.

Robert Wright is the U.S. correspondent with "The Financial Times". He spoke about the danger.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT WRIGHT, FINANCIAL TIMES CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. typically doesn't have the most modern types of signaling equipment. And often the money for maintaining the track isn't there. So, we are seeing some incidents that perhaps could be avoided.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: That will certainly be something that could have been part of the investigation. Wright points out trains are still much safer than cars, 33,000 people die in car wrecks in the U.S. each year -- some perspective there.

BERMAN: We'll continue to follow this breaking news out of Philadelphia as investigators arrive at this crash site of this train number 188. Five people killed in this derailment. We'll hear from passengers describing moments of chaos.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: This is CNN's breaking news coverage of the deadly Amtrak train derailment in Philadelphia.

[05:15:01] You're looking at live pictures right now from that scene. North of 30th Street Station in Philadelphia.

This is what we know right now: five people killed. At least 136 people have been treated at local hospitals through the course of the night and morning. Fire officials say that six of those injuries are critical.

The city's fire commissioner says he's just stunned by the devastation at the scene. Listen to him describing a huge rescue effort.

BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

There's a bunch of debris down there, sharp objects. So, 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: Listen to passenger Janna D'Ambrisi, she's describing the moment the cars went off the tracks. There is no official cause for this crash, of course, yet. But she said the train went through too 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. 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.

And there's wave of panic initially. I was 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. But we did finally 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)

BERMAN: One of our analysts, former Transportation Department Inspector General Mary Schiavo agrees with that passenger's assessment, that speed, 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 this 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)

ROMANS: Seven cars on train 188 completely derailed. Some of them ripped in half, overturned, or badly shredded.

Emergency crews last night swarming the crash site into the night. Well over 300 police and firefighters on the scene in minutes.

Listen to this Red Cross official explain the response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY TORNETTA, AMERICAN RED CROSS EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA: I have to say, you know, as a 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 throughout the night. It's such a tragic situation. It's such a powerful thing everybody coming together and working together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: We're going to stay on this all morning. The deadly Amtrak train derailment in Philadelphia. We keep getting new information. We'll keep you updated.

There is other news: dozens dead and a U.S. military helicopter missing after the devastating new earthquake in Nepal. We'll have the very latest, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:23:11] ROMANS: Back to CNN's breaking news this morning. A deadly Amtrak train derailment in Philadelphia.

Here's the very latest: at least five people killed. Local hospitals are treating at least 136 passengers. Fire officials say six of those injuries are critical. Six of them are critical.

The Amtrak Northeast Regional Train 188 was traveling from Washington to New York when it derailed in Philadelphia. Philadelphia's mayor says what cause of the derailment still unclear. What is clear, the scene was utter 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)

BERMAN: The passengers who managed to walk away described a frantic, bloody scene.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I helped my 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 saw everyone, I could see the blood on people's faces. They can't move. Their knees were out. So, I just tried to do my best to help people get out of the car because there was smoke.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Amtrak has set up a special hotline for people who need the information on friends and family aboard that train. The number, take a look at it right now, 800-523-9101.

ROMANS: We will update you on the Amtrak derailment story throughout the morning, but turning now to other important news we're following.

[05:25:00] At least 83 people are dead following the magnitude 7.3 quake near Nepal's border with China on Monday. Seventeen of those fatalities in India, at least one in China. The rest of the deaths, reported deaths are in Nepal, where a U.S. military helicopter has gone missing while supporting quake relief efforts, that military helicopter with six marines on board and two Nepalese officials missing.

A Pentagon spokesman says the chopper crew radioed that they were having a fuel problem and then contact was lost. Search and rescue efforts are under way this morning. There's hope, there's optimism among military circles that in fact it could be a just difficult time in the Himalayas getting a radio signal through and they are safe. But there's no evidence of a crash that they can't find that helicopter.

BERMAN: We have breaking news out of Pakistan this morning. Police now say that six gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on a bus in Karachi, killing 42 people and wounding at least 20 others. The bus was carrying men and women and children from a Shiite sect, that are often persecuted by extremists. A splinter group of Pakistani Taliban has now claimed responsibility for this horrific attack.

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

BERMAN: All right. The breaking news this morning, the Amtrak train derailment in Philadelphia. As of now what we know, at least five people killed. More than 100 others injured. We have live team coverage, right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)