>> if the train was speeding there are still questions about why. the mayor of philadelphia says the train's engineer has spoken to police. >> the engineer was injured, received medical care was then interviewed by the philadelphia police department and made whatever statement he may have made. >> also tonight, emergency crews digging through the wreckage hoping to locate anyone still trapped underneath the debris. the death toll now at seven, with hundreds more injured. and at least two passengers are reported missing. today newly released footage from surveillance cameras showed the images from the crash. you can see the train falling off the tracks surrounded by flashes of light. tonight big questions about exactly how and why that happened. as the search in the wreckage continues. we start on the ground in philadelphia with nbc's ayman mohyeldin who is near the crash site and msnbc national correspondent joy reid who is at temple university hospital. let's start ayman. what's the latest on the recovery effort, ayman? >> still very much an active scene here reverend. the ntsb a while ago wrapped up their press conference. the word you hear time and time again is timeline. they're trying to piece together the timeline of what happened in those fatal final minutes. the train left the station. at 9:21 it was completely derailed. a lot of questions surrounding the speed at the time it was entering the left turn. as you were saying the initial data suggests that it was going at about a speed of 106 miles per hour. and at the time that the engineer applied the emergency brake, the final data point collected was about 102 miles per hour. in either case that is about double the speed of what was authorized for the train to be making as it entered into that curve. now, officials here say they're still collecting what is known as perishable data, that is information that may not last very long. they have taken the black box recorder out of the train. they have taken it to amtrak in order for it to be downloaded. it will then be taken to the ntsb lab in washington, d.c. where more information can be gathered. now, some of the information that is going to help in this investigation includes the signals on the track. was there any signal that may provide critical information, as well as the actions of the engineer. they have not yet, the ntsb has not yet spoken to the engineer. he was treated and released from the hospital. but as of yet, they have not conducted any interviews with either the engineer or the local crews that were on board that amtrak train that is going to happen within the next couple days. right now they said it is all about trying to get information here on the scene. perhaps one piece of information that is important is that ntsb officials say they have released the tracks back to amtrak so that amtrak can begin repairing those tracks. perhaps trying to get service flowing again. but as of now, the ntsb did confirm they actually inspected the tracks where this incident happened as early as yesterday. by all measures the track was fine. by all measures at this point, there was no mechanical problems with the tracks themselves. the questions, though surrounding the speed and initial data that is being recovered from that data, the event recorder that was taken from the train. rev? >> ayman, what is going on around you now? i understand some of the executives from amtrak has been on the scene? >> that is correct. we've learned as well from the officials here city officials that both the ceo and the chairman of amtrak are on the scene. they have been briefed about the conditions and on the ongoing recovery efforts. we also know several various agencies involved from the office of emergency management from philadelphia as well. this part of the street right here is flowing to normal traffic. police are on the scene trying to keep the situation controlled for both pedestrians media, and the folks that are trying to bring in the heavy equipment to try to get these pieces of the train off the tracks. the ntsb did say that the carts, the seven carts as well as the locomotive will be moved off the tracks. they'll be taken to a secure location where the investigation around them will continue. but for the most part here it is a scene of heavy work. there is still a lot of work to be done in terms of identifying everybody, and getting, as we are saying, getting those tracks released back to amtrak so they can begin their repair work and try to reopen this part of the northeast corridor. rev? >> let me go to you, joy reid. joy, what is the scene like where you are? >> well rev five different hospitals in this area treated patients from that amtrak train derailment crash, including temple university hospital behind me. we're expecting to see about six of the 23 remaining patients here at this hospital potentially released tonight. and we do know that this hospital also was where james marshall gains was treated. he was 49 years old. he worked for -- i should say james marshall gaines iii. and he worked for the associated press and unfortunately did die overnight of a massive chest wound. and earlier the spokesman for the hospital, the chief surgeon at the hospital did give a press conference in which he talked about the kinds of wounds that they saw here. a lot of rib fractures, a lot of chest-related injuries which would not be uncommon for such a catastrophic crash in which people were moving around people were not seat belted in. the spokesman at the hospital did say they didn't see as many head injuries as they might have expected or as many lung collapses, that kind of injury as you might have expected from this kind of a crash at such a high rate of speed. the patients who have been treated here at temple university range from the 20s all the way to the 80s. >> wow. >> and they are just not only locals, but also people from around the world. they have seen people from as far away as albania. >> wow. our prayers are certainly with the families. ayman mohyeldin and joy reid thank you for your reporting. joining us now, two former national transportation safety board members kitty higgins and john golhi. thank you both for being here. >> thank you. >> kitty, what stood out to you from the ntsb press conference? >> well, what stood out to me rev, when member zumwalt said the emergency brake was applied by the engineer which meant that the engineer was in fact in control of the train, and he used the emergency brake as opposed to what i could consider the normal braking system. so the question for me is what was he doing in those minutes before he realized he had to apply the emergency brake. was he distracted in some way. >> how are they going to find out what he was doing? >> well they will interview him. they will also look at his cell phone. would he by in some way have been using his cell phone? was he texting? we've seen other accidents where that's been a major factor. those are my questions. what was he doing? why didn't he apply the brake sooner? was he familiar with the route? >> john let me ask you, let me go to you, john goalier, what are the main things that the engineer could answer that we are not -- we would not know to be mindful of and curious about? what are the critical pieces that you would want to know? >> well, if he is going to talk to us we would like to know just what his actions were from the time he left that station, 11 minutes earlier, to the time of this derailment. was he -- was he dozing? what was his work schedule before this event? had he been working a lot of hours that would have made him fatigued? was he struggling with the train, trying to figure out why it was accelerating? because maybe it wasn't an input from him that was causing the train to accelerate. so there is a lot of questions. >> i hear you say, mr. goglia if he is going to talk to us. are you suggesting he may not talk to you? >> well we've heard today that he has already hired lawyers. so the indication were that he may not be fully cooperative. >> let me ask you this. what else will the event recorders tell us? >> it's not like an airplane recorder. >> okay. >> an airplane recorder has hundreds of parameters. event recorders do not have that robust of a recorder. so it's really just going to tell us the basics of how the train was operated. but it is going to tell us the throttle settings that he set when he left the station. and whether or not he tried to apply other brake, the regular braking system before he hit the emergency brake. >> kitty how long will it take to move the debris? >> well i think they'll be working as quickly as they can. i think it's important to note that the ntsb has released the track back to amtrak which means that they can now start to remove the debris. they're clearly still looking, want to make sure there are no other victims that have not been accounted for there are still a couple people who are missing, apparently. so they will do it as quickly as they can. obviously, it's a massive job. but they've got the equipment and the human power to do it. >> will they piece the train back together? >> i believe member zumwalt said they would take it all to a secure location so that they can go over it very carefully. as mr. goglia said to make sure that they'll look at the mechanics. was there some mechanical malfunction in the braking system, for example that might have contributed to the accident or some other failure. >> now, the ntsb investigator also talked about a so-called deadman's switch which can stop a train if an engineer loses consciousness, for example. listen. >> oftentimes in place of the deadman switch they have an alerter. so if there is no taitt from the engineer within a certain period of time the aural and visual alerter will activate in the cab of the locomotive. >> what role could that play in alerting an engineer to a problem? >> well i think the idea is to essentially create a noise, or if he might have dozed off, to essentially wake him up and realize he's got the take control of the train. this train did not -- does not have the override capacity so that as some trains do. so if speeding excessively, to be able to slow it down. so i'm not that familiar with all of the mechanics of this. but an alerter system as i understand it essentially would be a loud enough noise to get the engineer's attention. >> john what will we know tomorrow this time that we don't know now? >> we're going have a better handle on the equipment, because of the work that they did today. so it will be able to tell us -- put more focus on whether it's a mechanical failure or a human being failure. >> well john goglia and kitty higgins, thank you for your time. >> thank you for having me. >> coming up survival stories. amazing accounts from inside the train when it crashed. and the politics of amtrak funding. this debate goes back decades. what are they saying in washington today? and what would cause a train to derail? and why are we seeing more of them? we look at the forensics of rail disasters with the mechanical engineer. and a philadelphia community comes together. heroic stories are emerging from the tragedy. you'll hear them ahead. ♪ if you're looking for a car that drives you... ...and takes the wheel right from your very hands... ...this isn't that car. the first and only car with direct adaptive steering. ♪ the 328 horsepower q50 from infiniti. you, my friend recognize when a trend has reached critical mass. that's what a type e* does. with e*trade's investing insights center, you can spot trends before they become trendy. if you misplaced your discover card you can now use freeze it to prevent new purchases on your account in seconds. and once you find it you can switch it right on again. you're back! freeze it, only from discover. get it at discover.com. the chief medical officer from temple university hospital spoke about the victims. >> and i think we're fortunate there weren't more deaths. i haven't seen the site yet. i know you've all seen the site in the pictures. i've seen little glimpses as i go past the tv screens. but what little i've seen suggested it could have been a lot worse. >> the survivor stories from inside the train are next. one phillips' colon health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these occasional digestive issues... with 3 types of good bacteria. live the regular life. phillips' >>who... is this?! >>hi, i am heinz new mustard. hi na na na na >>she's just jealous because you have better taste. whatever. >>hey. keep your chin up. for years, heinz ketchup has been with the wrong mustard. well, not anymore. introducing heinz new better tasting yellow mustard. mmm! back to our breaking news. crews are looking for victims inside the wreckage of a train that crashed in philadelphia. and we're hearing the emergency call that went out right after the train went off the rails. >> notify amtrak to shut down the entire northeast corridor. we have a major event here. we have people on the track and a couple of cars overturned. we're going to classify this as a mass casualty incident. >> every single person who survived has a story of what they saw and how they escaped. listen to them describe the horrifying moments right after the crash. >> we were sitting there, and then it just -- you saw it go like that swung. you could feel it off the tracks. and then we just rolled and rolled. >> it felt like the brakes were hit hard, and our car, we were third from the last started slowly going over to the right. >> and i remember sitting there for a second thinking i cannot believe that just happened. once smoke started filling the car, i thought i got to get out of here. >> passengers tried to open the door and get off the train. and you could hear the panic in their voices. >> here. hold on. here. >> go, go, go, go! >> keep crawling, okay? >> where am i crawling to? >> crawl forward, sir. >> the next thing i knew we were pushing out the emergency exit. and i was outside, and there were people screaming and bleeding. >> there was a lot of blood all over the guy flex to me was unconscious. >> someone told me i had been delirious, and that they had carried me off. >> my shoes are not my shoes. somewhere i lost my shoes. and a lady gave me her shoes. >> joining me now is jeremy velez. he survived the train crash. and thank god, jeremy you're here. thank you so much for being here. i'm so glad you're okay. >> thank you for having me. >> you ride this train line often, you tell me. share with us why that is? >> we own a group of restaurants called fuel pizza in d.c. and we have one in new york. we have a group in new york. we also have a restaurant here called ag kitchen. >> you have one in harlem? >> we do. we have a custom fuel pizza in harlem, 123th and frederick douglas. >> where were you when it happened the crash? >> luckily, i had just sat down. i stroll through the train frequently. and i stroll through the entire train, to the first class cabin, all the way back and sat down. i was eating a slice of pizza, and i was sitting there. and my colleague through the other side of the aisle, and i was in the last car about the middle of the last car. and we were sitting there, and we were just chatting. and i had my tablet out. and i'm eating away and talking. all of the sudden you feel this bump. you know a bump you don't feel on a train. >> now before the bump did you notice anything out of the ordinary? >> earlier when i walked it felt like the train was going fast. but i've been on many trains that felt that way. and i didn't know that we left a little bit late and we were slow at one place. i thought there is always a possibility that they're making up time and these guys are professionals and usually know what they're doing. i don't second guess the train. i always find it to be the safest way to travel. >> right. and what was it like the second after the crash. >> the first bump which we all jumped. the second bump was -- you knew there was a big problem. and the third bump, you felt the train going off and you knew there was a derailment and you knew this was chaos. >> were you thrown around? >> i was -- by this time i had been thrown from the all the way to the window. my train was tilting about 30 degrees. and i was kind of stuck there. and you saw phones flying laptops, things going everywhere. >> wow. >> bags, purses shoes, you know. two women were flung all the way up above me in the luggage rack. >> above you? >> on to the luggage rack. >> was there screaming? >> there was screaming, chaos. but it happened -- it seems like it took forever, but it happened in seconds. a couple of seconds. and then the train came to a stop, and everyone started screaming, is everybody okay you know daniel, you all right? jeremy, you all right? everybody started asking is everybody all right? you were just in some state of shock. >> how did you get out? you said you were shocked you got out. >> not that i -- i mean i was shocked -- i was shocked how many people made it out and how many people made it out alive and fairly healthy. because the trauma -- to feel what you went through was just incredible. crazy. so there were people -- there was a guy who kind of stood up and kind of fell on me. we were trying to help these people out of the luggage wracks, these two women. and they finally by the time i was able emerge up they had just opened the back door. so we were all going out the back door. and i have a scooter. i take one of the push scooters around new york and d.c. i left it up there. i saw it. eel i'll leave it i'll get it some other time. it's not that important. i'm going to go help people. i got out and they helped me down. one guy identified himself as a police officer. and he was great. he really handled things well. and then -- then eventually i got out of the train. and then i went up the front, up to the next car to try and see if i could help anybody. and they said no, no we need help in the back. go help them in the back. so i helped a couple of people out. it was limited on what you could do. and not long after, people started to emerge. some of the emergency rescue teams started to emerge. and then the -- then they brought the saw and cut down the fence. and people were yelling don't touch metal. watch the -- there were live electrical wires hanging, dangling. >> right. >> don't touch them don't go near them. you really could have slipped and fell on them. >> as you were helping people did you have a sense that some people were not going to make it because it was a little while before we started hearing about some of the fatalities. >> where i was, i could see my car, the next car, and then the next car was turned at a complete diagonal. so you couldn't see much above except some smoke. not a lot. and you couldn't really -- you didn't know exactly what was going on in front. so these three cars were standing up. and i didn't know what was up. but i knew the shock, the shake, i knew -- i felt that we're lucky that things didn't bludgeon us that the chairs, the seats had turned and twisted. things were bent and twisted all throughout the train. you know i was shocked that everybody this my car i think walked out from what i could see from my vantage point was everybody got out. i was shocked by that. and then they walked us through this field, about 200 yards into this neighborhood which was this poor neighborhood. and these people were incredible. these people came up with cases of water, come in use our bathroom. we can help you. want us to clean you up what can we do for you. these people -- it was brotherly love. it really felt like philadelphia, like you had heard about and read about and these guys all came out and helped us. >> that's so great to hear. >> it was. the one good thing came out is everybody kind of became one, you know. it was a great thing. >> but that's great to hear amidst all of this tragedy. jeremy wladis thank you for your time. we're so happy again that you're safe. >> thank you. ahead, how a new technology could have prevented the crash. it's on some trains already. why not this one? also new concerns about our infrastructure. will the disaster lead to change in washington? and remembering the victims. many on their way home when tragedy hit. ♪ ♪ ♪ at chase, we celebrate small businesses every day through programs like mission main street grants. last years' grant recipients are achieving amazing things. carving a name for myself and creating local jobs. creating more programs for these little bookworms. bringing a taste of louisiana to the world. at chase, we're proud to support our grant recipients and small businesses like yours. so you can take the next big step. we were below the 88th southern parallel. we had traveled for over 850 miles. my men driven nearly mad from starvation and frostbite. today we make history. >>bienvenidos! welcome to the south pole! if you're dora the explorer, you explore. it's what you do. >>what took you so long? if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance you switch to geico. it's what you do. >>you did it, yay! if you're running a business legalzoom has your back. over the last 10 years we've helped one million business owners get started. visit legalzoom today for the legal help you need to start and run your business. legalzoom. legal help is here. doers. they don't worry if something's possible. they just do it. at sears optical, we're committed to bringing them eyewear that works as hard as they do. right now, save up to $200 on eyeglasses. quality eyewear for doers. sears optical pictures of the debris field from the amtrak train crash in philadelphia. that left at least seven people dead. investigators think the train was going more than 100 miles per hour, double the speed limit for that curve. two years ago a metro north train derailed in new york after going into a curve at nearly three times the speed limit. right after the "today" show's jeff rosen showed us technology could have prevented it from happening. >> state-of-the-art collision avoidance technology. >> it's called positive train control, or ptc. a sophisticated system of sensors on the rails and inside the locomotive even using satellites to track the train's movements and prevent many accidents caused by operator error. if the train is going too fast the computer warns the crew. if the engineer doesn't slow down, the computer activates the brakes. ptc helps prevent collisions too, stopping the train from blowing through red signals if the operator is distracted. the ntsb agrees positive train control is on its most wanted list of safety improvements. >> that was nbc's jeff rosen. the train last night did not have that technology. why not? 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joining me now is congressman gerald nadler of new york. he serves on the house committee of railroads. congressman, it seems speed was a factor in this crash. but how critical is it that we upgrade amtrak's infrastructure? >> well it's very critical that we upgrade amtrak's infrastructure, and not just amtrak. all rail and all highways. we are spending -- we spent about $50 billion a year on highways. about $15 billion a year on bridges. and about $1.2 billion, about 2% of our transportation budget goes to rail. that is ridiculous. and we're spending much too little. we have a $50 billion backlog of maintenance of track bed work on amtrak. $21 billion of that is on the northeast corridor. so -- >> 50 billion backlog? >> yes, 50 billion backlog of which about 21 billion is on the northeast corridor from boston to washington. and the president proposed whittling that down at $2.5 billion a year but the republicans won't give the funds. we used to spend -- let's put it this way. we are now spending on all infrastructure -- roads, highways bridges, mass transit, railroads, broad band we're spending about 1.7% of gdp of our economy on infrastructure. prereagan we used to spend about 4%. europe is spending about 5%. china is spending 9%. and who do you think is going to be more competitive when they have fast erodes faster rails, safer and more efficient transportation. >> so china is spending 9%? >> china spends about% of gdp on infrastructure. we're spending 1.7%. >> 1.7% of gdp. how do people justify in the congress taking the politics out of it, just purely how do you justify that? are we talking about the safety of american lives? >> not just the safety of american lives, also the competitiveness of our economy and competing with the rest of the world and in generating jobs. they don't really justify it. they just say we don't want to spend money, and we spend less money. i mean, there is a whole philosophy. the republican party thinks the federal government should spend as little money as a possible except on defense. and you see this morning they cut on a party line vote $290 million out of the amtrak budget, this morning after that accident, below $290 million below what was in last year's budget and considerably more than that from what the president requested. >> so now we don't know. we know that speed was involved. we don't know how involved infrastructure will end up being here. but despite the accident and the unknown, they voted to cut $290 million this morning? >> this morning it was in the appropriations committee. you had some quotes i think from that committee meeting a little while ago. they voted to cut $290 million below this year's budget for next year. >> that's amazing. congressman jerry nadler thank you for your time tonight. >> you're quite welcome. this disaster put a new focus on the first responders and everyday heros who jumped in to help save lives. the people who guided passengers out of the mangled wreckage and who cared for the injured. the president released a statement praising the city for its response. saying quote, philadelphia is known as the city of brotherly love, a city of neighborhoods and neighbors. and that spirit of loving kindness was reaffirmed last night as hundreds of first responders and passengers lent a hand to their fellow human beings in need. joining me now is darryl clark, president of the philadelphia city council. thank you for being here. >> thank you, reverend al. >> councilman how is the city pulling together right now? >> this is a very challenging day for us. very tragic event. i toured the site. i want to say our prayers are out to the victims and their families. it's a real location -- i mean, something that you've never seen before. it's only amazing. we're fortunate that there weren't more significant injuries to the passengers. but the simple reality is in this particular community, this is a strong working class community. and i'm really proud about the way they responded. not necessarily to the accident but responded to those first responders that took the responsibility in the dark of night to deal with this particular issue. >> i had a survivor here in studio with me who said in the darker night people were running out, offering to help clean them up offering for people to come into their homes. really were reaching out in this working class neighborhood. >> exactly. people were coming out, as you said, reverend al offering water, offering comfort to the responders. this is a really tragic situation, the dark of night. as i said earlier, but the simple reality is people came out very aggressively. as i was standing here recently an individual just offered to allow me to go up on the roof so i could see the sight. and i explained to them i already seen it. but the reality is that is the fabric that we have in this particular community. so i feel real good about our response. i feel real good about the people in this neighborhood. but i feel really bad what has happened here. and we have to make sure that it never happens again. >> i mean no one could ever predict a tragedy like this and no one certainly in their hometown or near their home could predict this. and it's the reaction almost the unthinking reaction of kindness that does give you some kind of hope in the middle of this kind of tragedy. >> right. well reverend al we're not called the city of brotherly love by an accident. the simple reality is we have a lot of good people in these communities. when ever there is an event such as this and nothing at this level that has happened. but when we have these events, we're always responding all supporting our first responders opening up our homes, our arms to do whatever needs to happen. you saw a clear representation of that last night. and it continues throughout the day. >> well our thoughts are certainly with your city. and we certainly, certainly congratulate and uphold those ordinary people that showed some extraordinary compassion and sensitivity in the middle of this unprecedented crisis in your city. philadelphia city council president darrell clarke thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you, reverend for bringing it to attention. thank you so much. still ahead, we'll look at why trains crash, and how to stop the next disaster. plus we'll go live to philadelphia to talk to my colleague chris hayes, who surveyed the damage today from a helicopter. bring us your aching... and sleep deprived. bring us those who want to feel well rested and ready to enjoy the morning ahead. aleve pm. the first to combine a sleep aid... plus the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve. for pain relief that can last until the am. so you... you... and you, can be a morning person again. aleve pm, for a better am. it's so shiny. i know, mommy, but it's time to let the new kitchen get some sleep. if you want beautiful results, you know where to go - angie's list. now everyone can get highly rated service even without a membership. you can shop special offers or use the snapfix feature to tell us what you need and we'll help you find a local company to take care of it. angie's list is there for all your projects, big and small. pretty. come see what the new angie's list can do for you. ideas come into this world ugly and messy. they are the natural born enemy of the way things are. yes, ideas are scary and messy and fragile. but under the proper care, they become something beautiful. that's going to go right in your glove. ohhh. oh. see that? 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>> well they seem to be zeroing in on speed. and that's gross human error. derailments are almost always equipment failure. about the only way you can derail a train with human error is too fast on a curve. it very rarely happens. but it looks like we've -- in fact, i was all over that. i'm trying to right science books. i had to go back the 1950s to find one in new jersey. now we had two last year and one now. >> professor, the train was we are told was traveling over 100 miles per hour. what other factors could have contributed to the crash? >> well i don't think anything other than human error. they are developing positive train control that would allow the computer to intervene if the human make answer error. but that's a work in progress. that's proceeding about as fast as it can. they're having a lot of technological growing pains. but thalg get there. >> kitty, how does this derailment compare to others you have seen? >> well reverend al i was in california for that metrolink accident you mentioned earlier. and out of that accident came the legislative requirement for positive train control. that was seven years ago. and as your earlier guest said it's still not in place. on the other hand, on the northeast corridor if you were on an acela train last night, this accident would not have happened because there is automatic train stop that is part of the acela system. so it is possible to do this even though we don't have positive train control implemented nationwide. and frankly, i don't understand why we haven't implemented positive train stop on the northeast corridor. we can do it. >> professor, let me ask you about that the automatic train stop. how is it to put in trains and trains that don't have it as in this one? >> well there's unexpected problems. when they passed the law, there were nine systems under test throughout the united states and they're all -- they're all incompatible. and it literally took them years to agree on engineering standards. now that may sound like foot-dragging, but i like to illustrate that problem with -- well, ibm and apple computers were incompatible for decades. and they actually never solved that problem. a very simple explanation. their bits were numbered reversed. one did it one way the other did it the other way. and they never did solve the problem. the solution is apple finally added ibm compatible chip sets. so these engineers standards can create some unexpected problems. now, they have agreed on standards, but it took them years to do that which is part of -- a big part of the problem. i don't know the specifics of this line. but elsewhere they've -- they used to give away bandwidths, then they started selling it. now it's all used up in big metropolitan areas. there is other -- they're having problems installing antennas. there are bureaucratic issues. there are -- it's a work in progress. >> kitty, what kind of steps can we take to prevent this kind of tragedy in the future? >> reverend al i would say this is a failure of leadership. it is difficult? yes. but we put a man on the moon in less time than it's going to take to implement positive train control. we can do this. we know how to do it. the technology exists. the question is whether there is a will to do it within government and without government. we need to do it. there are other safety measures that i'm sure will come out of this accident like improving the interiors of cabs, of train cars to make them safer. >> george bible and kitty higgins, thank you both for your time tonight. we'll be right back. hi, i am heinz new mustard. hi na na na na >>she's just jealous because you have better taste. whatever. >>hey. keep your chin up. for years, heinz ketchup has been with the wrong mustard. well, not anymore. introducing heinz new better tasting yellow mustard. mmm! the train's mangled wreckage shows the force of impact when this train derailed. my colleague chris hayes went up in a chopper earlier today to survey the damage. joining me now is chris hayes, host of "all in" here on msnbc. chris, what struck you as you saw the damage for yourself from the air? >> you know the most striking thing is just the immediate thought you have is that you can't believe that there are only seven fatalities. obviously seven fatales is a huge amount and horrific. but when you look at the wreckage when you know there are 243 people on that train and when you see the turn which is about as close to a right turn as a train can make i mean, it's -- the track is going like this and ends up going like that and there is a curve between the two. when you think about that curve taken at 100 miles an hour with the amount of force and the mass that is sort of careening forward, and if you look at the car that had been smashed to bits, the first passenger car, it seems like a miracle that there were not more fatalities, frankly. >> as you viewed it and saw that do you think that the speed and that we're told and other things that they're looking at is something that could have been avoided had the technology been more updated, had the infrastructure been more upgraded? i mean what were your thoughts? obviously, we're waiting on the investigation. and we're less than 24 hours since it happened. but what comes to mind as you viewed this from the air? >> well the basic physics of it look pretty clear, particularly when you look at the wreckage and you know from the ntsb and from the train that it was traveling at 102 miles an hour is the terminal speed before it dropped off the reading. when you look at the physics, you can see what happened. you see it took the bend too fast. you can see the rails were literally lifted up off the ground by the force of taking that too fast. and you see the embankment where once it jumped off the rails it crashed into and crushed the train. now one of the key things to understand here we know that the engineer survived the crash. the locomotive on this train, it's a push/pull system so, there can be locomotives in the back although that rarely happens in amtrak trains. it's usually pulled. the locomotive engineer hits the impact. the locomotive is engineered to extremely high safety standards. it's essentially like a tank that was sitting just off the wreckage site almost fully intact whereas the first passenger car down on the ground was shredded and almost crushed like a piece of aluminum foil that took the brunt of that impact. that's why the engineer survived. why that person apparently has been identified, and that locomotive was sitting there. in terms of positive train control, which is the technology that would have stopped it, i tend to trust the ntsb on this. >> all right, chris hayes, thank you for your reporting tonight. and catch "all in" tonight live from philadelphia at 8:00 p.m. eastern time. we'll be right back. bring us your aching... and sleep deprived. bring us those who want to feel well rested and ready to enjoy the morning ahead. aleve pm. the first to combine a sleep aid... plus the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve. for pain relief that can last until the am. so you... you... and you, can be a morning person again. aleve pm, for a better am. tonight we're learning more about the seven people confirmed dead in this tragedy. one of the victims was 20-year-old justin zemser from new york. he was a student at the naval academy, heading home on leave at the time of the derailment. his grieving mother talked about him today. >> he was a loving son, nephew and cousin who was very community minded. this tragedy has shocked us all in the worst way, and we wish to spend this time grieving with our close family and friends. >> what do you want people to know about justin? >> he was wonderful. he was absolutely wonderful. everybody looked up to my son. and there is just no other words i could say. >> another victim was jim gaines a 48-year-old father of two from new jersey. gaines was an associated press staffer who was returning home after meetings in washington. a third victim has been identified as abed gillani, a 55-year-old wells fargo executive. the four other victims have not yet been identified. one person missing tonight is gob gildersleeve seen on this flier held by his son mark. >> my name is mark gildersleeve. please help me find my dad. and if you have any information, please call these numbers listed. >> we're praying for the safe return of all of those missing. and our prayers go out to all of the victims of this tragedy. no matter who you are and where you are, let us all pray for the victims, families and for those yet missing. thanks for watching. i'm al sharpton. "hardball" starts right now. tragedy in philadelphia. this is "hardball." >> i'm chris matthews in philadelphia, the site of last night's horrific train derailment. here is what we know at this hour. at least seven people were killed and 200 others were injured when a northeast regional train jumped the tracks shortly after it left philadelphia's 30th street station. the train was rounding a sharp curve, and many of the cars rolled over. according to the ntsb