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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

At Least Five Dead In Philly Train Derailment. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired May 13, 2015 - 05:30   ET

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

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

[05:30:23] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Our breaking news this morning, you're looking at live pictures as dawn breaks in Philadelphia, where at least five people were killed, more than 100 injured when an Amtrak train derailed overnight.

Passengers describe a horrific scene. Investigators arriving at that scene to find out what went so terribly wrong. Our live coverage begins right now. Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. I'm John Berman.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Christine Romans. It is 30 minutes past the hour. We welcome our viewers here in the U.S. and around the world this morning.

Breaking overnight, a devastating train derailment in Philadelphia, five people killed. Local hospitals are treating at least 136 passengers including at least six in critical condition.

Amtrak Northeast Regional 188 from Washington to New York crashed around 9:30 last night, carrying 238 passengers, five crew members. Seven cars and the train's engine overturned -- simply look at that torn apart by the force.

Although officials say they don't believe terrorism was involved, the cause is not yet 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: The point is I've never seen anything so devastating. They're in pretty bad shape. You can see they completely, completely derailed from the track. They've been destroyed completely.

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: You can see it for yourself right now, these are live pictures. This is the best look we've had all night and morning. Now that it's light, you can just see what happened to the railcars, simply stunning.

Passengers on board, they describe harrowing experiences. Debris, luggage and, yes, even bodies flying through the compartment.

CNN's Sara Sidner is at the site with the very latest. Sara, we're seeing so much more as the sun comes up.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we are. And, again, we're standing on the tracks where this train traveled. You can see the bend in the track. You can see the sort of hard right that the tracks make.

I'm going to give you a look at that so I'm going to just step out of the shot here and give you a good look at what's going on. We've been watching the scene for hours now. The same thing you're seeing now, looks like investigators are looking at the track there, at the bend.

You'll see right after the bend, you'll see that last car, it is leaning very far to the right. And then beyond that, you can see more cars that are, you know, doing the same thing. They're off the tracks.

There's clearly a problem. And this far back, you can certainly see the damage that has been done to some of the seven cars that were involved in derailing. What we do not yet know is exactly what caused this.

That is what these gentlemen are doing out there on the track there, and ladies. We've been watching firefighters as well going through some of these cars taking their k9s through these cars trying to make sure that everyone is out.

We're still waiting on word that they've been able to identify and find all of the passengers. At last official count, they were not able to do that. So we're still waiting on board about that.

We know five people lost their lives here. Six people are in critical condition at this hour. It was a horrific scene. Also, we know the passengers inside, many of them, many of them, were able to just walk away from this.

Some of them with bruises, some of them had to go to the hospital with broken bones. The hospitals had to deal with a large numbers of casualties coming in. But the vast majority of people were able to get out of this train.

It was a very tumultuous scene and very difficult for some to find how to get out because of the position of the cars. Some of them toppling over, others mangled.

One car that we saw looks like unrecognizable really as train car. It's just a bunch of metal that is twisted and contorted in all different kinds of ways.

BERMAN: Now, Sara, we should point out this is the busiest stretch of rail, the northeast corridor, the busiest stretch of rail between Washington and Boston, busiest in North America.

More than 11 million people ride this every year, tens of thousands every day, 2,000 railcars pass through here every day. And, Sara, overnight, when this happened, the response was very quick and it was immense.

[05:35:09] SIDNER: Absolutely. When we first arrived here ourselves, we got here about an hour and a half or so after it all happened, there were huge numbers of vehicles here, firefighting vehicles. There were ambulances here. The police were here.

I mean, we saw at least a dozen on just one street alone as this incident was going so they had a really big response. The governor talked about how he was very proud of the first responders here.

Now, we're into the investigation phase and we're going to see the National Transportation Safety Board show up and do what they do, their expertise needed in these situations. They're going to want to look for different things.

There is electronic gadget similar to what's on a plane that can tell you how fast, for example, the train was going and give you some clue as to what was going on in that train as it was derailing.

But certainly, there's a lot going on here this morning and we're going to wait to hear from investigators exactly what it is exactly they find. It may take a bit time, guys.

BERMAN: And of course, they want to interview the engineer and the conductors if they are among the survivors to get their take on what happened.

Sara Sidner for us, on the scene of this disaster, as dawn breaks in Philadelphia. The scene of where five people were killed overnight when an Amtrak train derailed. Sara, our thanks to you.

Passengers on board that train described just harrowing moments. We have a description from one man talking about the exact moment the train went off the tracks.

(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. Things start flying, phones, laptops and then people. Seats, trays start flying.

You hear bumping and you hear like metal mangling. You know, 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 are two people in the luggage rack above my head. Two women got catapulted into the -- 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 hold on to things to the window underneath a tray and the seats were turned.

I mean, bags, shoes, everything, just thrown, just complete chaos. And, know, when we got out, we saw the train, and the train, looked like it was turned and twisted. You know, just wires were ripped out. There were electrical live wires, just chaos.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: You see the sun coming up on the scene now, and you can just see the scope of this devastation. Officials say there's no information yet on the cause of that crash.

An NTSB go-team, an investigation team, is due there any moment this morning. Former Transportation Department Security -- Inspector General Mary Schiavo says investigators will certainly look at how fast that train was going.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARY SCHIAVO, FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION: The location of the cars and the fact that one is perpendicular, you know, certainly, we don't know the cause, but given that they had -- they ended up in that situation, where they're perpendicular and it's very, very mangled, you know, that's not a slow derailment.

You know, it's hard to -- it's hard to, you know, estimate that kind of speed and it was headed into a curve, that that's an awful lot of damage, if it was a slow-moving train and it simply derailed the track going around the curve.

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: We do not know the cause of that crash yet, but Amtrak has said in the past, the infrastructure on the northeast corridor desperately needs more investment and maintenance.

Robert Wright is the U.S. industry correspondent with "The Financial Times" newspaper. Here's what he said about the danger.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT WRIGHT, "FINANCIAL TIMES" CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): The U.S. is very -- 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: Wright points out trains are still much safer way to travel than cars in this country, 33,000 people die in car accidents in the U.S. each year so some perspective there.

[05:40:03] BERMAN: Again, we're getting new pictures out of Philadelphia as dawn breaks there, a much closer look at the wreckage from this derailment of Amtrak Train 188 off the tracks in Philadelphia overnight. Passengers sharing their stories of survival -- next.

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ROMANS: Welcome back to CNN's breaking news coverage of the deadly train derailment in Philadelphia. Here's what we know right now. Five people are dead. Local hospitals are treating at least 136 passengers.

Fire officials say six of those injuries are critical. The city's fire commissioner stunned by the devastation at the scene. Listen to him describe the rescue effort.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAWYER: We used hydraulic tools to get to the people who were trapped. There were several people trapped. Train cars overturned. They're in horrible shape. There is a bunch of debris down there. It's a dangerous situation for responders, even more dangerous for riders down there, but we were able to get them out with hydraulic tools.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: One of the first things that investigators are certainly looking into the speed of that train as it went into that turn. I want you to listen to passenger, Janna D'Ambrisi describe the moment that it went off the tracks.

Again, I should say that there's no official cause yet for the crash, but her feeling was, yes, the train was moving too fast.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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 reading my books. Everything seemed normal.

[05:45:09] And suddenly it felt like we were going a little too fast around the curve -- what it felt like. And then there was a jolt. And immediately, you could tell that the train derailed, like, I could and there is a wave of panic initially.

I was thrown into the girl next to me sitting in the window seat. The train started to tip that way, to the right. And 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. I don't know if it only felt that way or maybe it was only a few seconds. I was just praying the train didn't tip any more. I was afraid we'd fall all the way on our side, but we didn't.

Finally it stopped at a tilt and everyone was screaming. So I stood up, I realized I wasn't hurt, thank God. Immediately, I was asking everybody around me, are you OK? Are you OK?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: We're continuing to follow this breaking news out of Philadelphia all morning long. The sun is coming up on the scene. What investigators will be looking for this morning that's next.

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[05:50:21]

BERMAN: Looking at live pictures from Philadelphia. This is CNN's live breaking news coverage of the train derailment that happened overnight there. At least five people were killed. Local hospitals in the area report they treated at least 136 passengers.

As of this morning, six of those passengers, we believe, are still in critical condition. The Amtrak Northeast Regional train number 188 was traveling from Washington to New York. It has passed through the 30th Street Station in Philadelphia when it derailed just north of that.

The mayor of Philadelphia says that what cause of the derailment unclear as of now. What is clear, what has been clear over the last several hours, the scene there just in 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: Passengers who managed to walk away also describing a frantic, bloody scene.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I helped my mom get off. That was my first priority and 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 it was smoking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Amtrak has set up a special hotline for people who need information on their friends and family aboard that train. Here is that number, 1-800-523-9101.

ROMANS: A team of NTSB investigators will be arriving on that scene in Philadelphia. Many are still -- already are there. They'll try to figure out exactly what caused this train to go off the rails. Seven cars completely derailed.

One of our experts, Mary Schiavo, who knows a lot about this, says she believes that speed will turn out to be a factor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHIAVO (via telephone): As soon as the NTSB downloads those train black boxes. They have the speed of the train and all the controls on the train. They even have where -- this is not a situation that would be significant in this accident, when the train moves through, and there are very specific federal rail administration regulations about where you do that and the speed.

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: All right, we're continuing to follow the breaking news out of Philadelphia all morning long for you.

Plus, another big story here, dozens dead and a U.S. military helicopter is missing after that devastating earthquake in Nepal. We'll bring you up to speed on that important story as well.

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[05:57:01]

BERMAN: All right. CNN is going to keep you updated on the Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia throughout the morning. We want to give you a look at some other headlines right now.

At least 83 people are dead following the magnitude 7.3 quake near Nepal's border with China on Monday, 17 of those killed died in India at least one death in China. The rest of the reported deaths in Nepal and that number could rise.

In Nepal, a U.S. military helicopter now missing, it was supporting relief efforts there. A Pentagon spokesman said the helicopter crew radioed. They were having some kind of fuel problem and lost contact. Search and rescue efforts under way this morning.

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 dozing off at a military event. Reports say he was killed by anti-aircraft fire in front of hundreds of speculators.

BERMAN: All right, the breaking news this morning, again, the deadly train derailment in Philadelphia. The sun is now rising there. New information on the crash, "NEW DAY" starts right now.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: This is NEW DAY. I'm Chris Cuomo in Philadelphia. And of course, we do have breaking news of a horrific train accident.

Alisyn and Michaela are in New York. And this is one of the deadliest train crashes in recent memory. Pictures will tell the story here. Words just cannot capture the situation adequately. Right now there are hundreds of first responders working through the night.

We still don't know if all of the 240-plus passengers on this Amtrak train from D.C. to New York City are accounted for. What we do know is that at least five people have lost their lives, well over 100 hospitalized. The obvious question is why.

But that's going to have to wait. Right now the urgency is trying to separate the living from this unimaginably twisted wreckage. The word derailed doesn't come close to describing what happened here.

CNN has complete team coverage this morning. Here's the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO (voice-over): A New York City-bound Amtrak passenger train from Washington, D.C., over 200 people onboard, derailing, rolling on its side on the tracks outside of Philadelphia. Seven cars in disarray, twisted and torn like tinfoil.

NUTTER: It is an absolute disastrous mess. Never seen anything like this in my life.

CUOMO: At least five dead, over 100 hospitalized. Passengers describe the horror as chairs and bags go flying in the air.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This huge red suitcase just came flying at me. Our train was actually on its side. There are many injured people on the train and they're very, very upset.

CUOMO: This video shows rescues in progress. Those lucky enough to walk away in a state of shock. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I could see the blood on people's faces. They can't move luckily like I'm still here, I'm still walking. I got really lucky.

CUOMO: First responders in the dark of night combing the area for injured and those unaccounted for.

SAWYER: I've never anything so devastating. They are in pretty bad shape.