cranes have now been brought in as authorities try to determine if anymore people are under that wreckage. we know at least six people were killed and more than 200 people were treated at local hospitals. officials say 243 people were onboard the train headed from washington to new york. ntsb investigators on the scene now and the train s data recorders or black boxes as we know them have been recovered. joining us now from a helicopter over the scene, nbc s tom costello. from your vantage point, what can you tell us regarding reporter: yeah, good day, we are 2,000 feet above this train wreck, and it is awful to see it from this altitude. you get a real sense of how terrible and how fast this event occurred with the trains literally twisted and broken and lying on their sides. we ve got major cranes big cranes coming in today. they are going to lift up the trains and they are going to be trying to look for anymore victims. they want to do a full accounting of everybody who s on tha
speed relationship to the signal system that s telling him what to do. so there s a lot of work that s already in progress. we heard remember when you get an event recorder which is what they call the recorders on the vehicle, and it says the operator applied the brakes well, then we re going to go look at the train itself and see if there s evidence he applied the brakes. so it s a set of checks and balances and everything that the ntsb does. john we heard amtrak officials and the mayor say there are things they know at this point things they do not know. from your expertise and background investigating accidents like this what do you believe they know perhaps they are not ready to share? well i would say that they probably already know what the event recorder has told them so they probably already know the speed, and they may have some indication of some track issues if they occurred earlier in the day, but it really is a little
recorder that s expected to shed more light on why that train derailed. ntsb investigators are still combing through the wreckage for clues and the company is cooperating fully with its investigation. amtrak will do everything in its power to assist in the investigation and brought every resource to support that effort. this is the amtrak family. we are very saddened by what s occurred and will do everything in our power to work with the mayor s office ntsb and all authorities to do everything possible in dealing with this tragedy. the train was heading to new york from washington, d.c. when it derailed. it just left its scheduled 9:07 p.m. stop at philadelphia s 30th street station. when about 9:28 p.m. the train derailed with such force it ripped the steel rails right from the tracks, tearing down overhead electric wires. all seven cars derailed many rolled over. if you see the video there, absolutely mangled, in pieces
that works the cafe cart ms. bryant, she was thrown around like a pinball, she was standing up when that train went tamron. even though she was very shocked and unstable she was there getting ice, napkins, giving them to people to put on their heads. a lot of people mostly everyone was bleeding from somewhere. patrick, thank you so much for joining us. i know you have been on the air all day describing what you saw and i know your family you were able to reach out to your wife and kids so we re appreciative you stuck around to talk with us. thank you. john golia is a former ntsb board member who spent most of his time investigating rail crashes and larry mann the principal author of the safety act of 1970 and larry joins us on the phone. gentlemen, thank you both for joining me. john, let me start with you here. you know it struck me just talking with rehema ellis, our