snow was falling up to an inch an hour. that storm that is blanketing the midwest is part of the same system that is moving through the northeast right now. we have a team of correspondents scattered across the country covering these breaking stories. let s begin with nick watt and this tragedy in south dakota. nick, what are you learning? well, as you mentioned, fred, three people miraculously survived this crash and first responders have to contend with that horrific weather to rescue those three. they ve been taken to the hospital in sioux falls. nine people dead on that plane. as you mentioned, among the dead two children. also we re told the pilot of the airplane. they were planning to fly west. about 600 miles or so to idaho falls. but that plane crashed shortly after takeoff. now, the faa and the ntsb are already investigating the cause and of course one major focus of that investigation will be that
spot incredibly quickly and did an amazing job. it was incredibly cold out there. they had to deal with incredibly cold conditions. wind, blowing snow. it was very bad out. then i understand major interstates in the area were closed for much of yesterday. visibility less than half a mile in some parts. do you know whether or how much of a role weather may have played in that crash? i don t even want to hazard a guess on that. media relations at the ntsb will be handling that. once they complete their investigation. and those would be the proper authorities to answer those questions. i don t even want to hazard a guess. well, our hearts and prayers are going out to all those affected by this terrible tragedy. nine lost in that plane crash. theresa maule rossow, thank you so much. thank you, fredricka. let me turn now to cnn
weather. as you say, a very bad winter storm moving through the area at the time of takeoff. low visibility. an inch of snow falling an hour. one local official tells us that weather was a factor in this, but that is just one local official. and of course ntsb will take a lot longer to come to any sort of determination. but the tragedy here, fred, nine people dead in this plane crash. back to you. terribly sad. nick watt, thank you so much. we re going to talk more with theresa mall-russo on this. she is the state s attorney for brewell county, south dakota where the plane crash took place. theresa, you had a number of first responders, law enforcement responding to this terrible accident. what have you learned about the victims or survivors, the circumstances? reporter: thank you, frederic fredericka. right now i believe it is inappropriate for me to disclose any names because of family members and just common
general for the u.s. department of transportation mary sciavo, and she works for a law firm that mary, ntsb officials says the agency is monitoring the search. it stands ready to assist if needed. what can we provide? what can we do? well we have to be invited in. it s not our jurisdiction. it s not the united states waters or airspace and so if they are invited in of course the ntsb has tremendous expertise and tremendous assets to actually conduct the investigation, but the most important thing right now is going to be to be able to find the plane and those black boxes because the communications that we do have and without any may day or calls, we don t know really what was going on. united states unfortunately, you know, the situation is similar in another way in that what we could send is equipment to help them find the wreckage which we re assuming is wreckage at this point, find the black bobbings and get those hauled up and read them. of course ntsb can read the
seat belts should be on trains. there are no seat belts on these trains. i can tell you between new york and washington i ride amtrak more than anyone should ride amtrak and it s the same situation there. this is right now this neighborhood is all gathered around. riverdale is on a hill overlooking the hudson and the trains are right on the river. basically the entire neighborhood is out trying to get a peek of what s going on here. also trying to figure out how they ll get to work tomorrow. right, john. i would imagine that something like this would create a huge mess in the neighborhood for a long period of time because there was another derailment i think of a train carrying trash sometime back in july. that s correct, joe. right at this station it was a freight train that derailed causing a major disruption and of course ntsb is familiar with the line because they are currently investigating an accident over the summer in