Of victims. His defense chief is reportedly executed by antiaircraft guns for dozing off in front of kim jongun. And isis leader killed . Iraqs military says the terror groups number two man has died in a Coalition Air strike. Ill ask the president S Deputy National security adviser about that and more. Im wolf blitzer. Youre in thethe situation room. The breaking news, federal investigators now say an amtrak passenger train was apparently going more than 100 miles an hour when it hit a curve rated at half that speed in philadelphia. All seven cars left the tracks. One was almost obliterated. At least seven people are dead. Some 200 others were injured. Rail traffic is shut down on a crucial transportation corridor. And there are urgent new questions about what went wrong in this crash and about the nations rail safety. Our correspondents analysts and guests are all standing by for full coverage. Lets begin with cnns brian todd. Hes on the scene for us in philadelphia. Brian . Reporter wolf this commute on the amtrak regional could not have been more routine when in an instant, there was carnage. You see over my right shoulder, theres the tail end, one of the last cars on the train, pitched to a 45degree angle off the tracks as investigators continue to comb through that. Tonight, were learning more about what caused the accident. And what we are learning actually is that the train according to a source briefed on the investigation could have been traveling at about 100 miles an hour in a 50mileanhour zone. It was approaching a curve at the time of the derailment. As you mentioned all the people injured there and some of them weve spoken to, we just recently interviewed a woman and her son in one of those last cars, they were returning to new jersey. Her son pulled several people out of one of those last cars. They were describing scenes of absolute carnage. Were expecting an ntsb briefing soon. What were told is that the engineer has given a statement to investigators. That information came from investigators and from philadelphia mayor michael nutter. And were also told some other people who were involved in the operation of the train have been talking to investigators. What were not knowing exactly right now is what theyve been saying there. And thats what we know at the moment. The ntsb is scheduled to brief at any moment. Youve got some information new information on at least two people who are still unaccounted for, is that right, brian . Reporter thats right. Weve learned that a man whos an executive of a Chemical Company in minneapolis is now listed as missing. His family filed a missing persons report with the Philadelphia Police department. The last we saw of him according to a Family Member was when his wife dropped him off at the baltimore train station last night. That was according to family. That was the last time he was seen. We now have more information on the other passenger, Rachel Jacobs is her name. She was the daughter of a michigan former Michigan State senator. She is still listed as missing. And now we have again, a little bit more information about what may have caused this accident. We have a major event down here. We have people on the track. Reporter screeching noises electrical flashes, then pandemonium. Investigators now believe amtrak northeast regional train 188 may have been traveling at twice the speed limit when it derailed in a philadelphia neighborhood at 9 30 p. M. On tuesday. I was thrown against the girl next to me against the window and people from the other side of the aisle started falling on top of us. Reporter searching for answers in the aftermath, today officials recovered the trains data recorder, the socalled black box. And cnn has learned investigators are seriously considering whether excessive speed could have caused the accident. The amtrak train is believed to have been traveling in excess of 100 Miles Per Hour as it approached a turn where the speed limit was 50. According to a source briefed by investigators. One passenger tells cnn, the train did appear to pick up speed right before the jolt. It felt like we sped up a little bit at first as if we were almost going around a curve. Reporter ntsb investigators will also study the condition of the track, the train, and, quote, human performance. Philadelphia mayor nutter said the train engineer survived and had talked to investigators. The engineer was injured. Received medical care. Was then interviewed by the Philadelphia Police department. Reporter we spoke to two other people who were on the train. A woman named joan and her son, max. Joan was hit by flying luggage. She suffered a concussion and some fractured ribs. Her son, max, got her out of the train as this train started to fill with smoke. They fit through just an eightinch opening in the train that they could find. Then max went in and pulled several other passengers out. He says hes no hero. He said that designation is reserved for the First Responders. Some investigators still on the scene behind me. Were standing by for an update from the National Transportation safety board. Theyre now the lead investigatory team on the scene right now. Momentarily, we expect to hear from the ntsb. Well have live coverage of that coming up. You see the microphones there. The reporters are all getting ready to ask questions and await the latest information. Officials do confirm that seven deaths did occur in the amtrak derailment. At least 200 passengers are injured with several of them in Critical Condition. Cnns Sunlen Serfaty is joining us now and is outside one of the six hospitals treating survivors of the wreck. Whats the latest, sunlen . Reporter this is Temple University hospital, the hospital closest to the crash site. Only about three miles away. So they took in the most patients overnight. 54 patients in all now. And the latest update from this hospital is that half of those patients have been treated and now released. But eight here remaining are in Critical Condition fighting for their lives right now. I spoke a short time with the medical director of this hospital about the nature that hes seen of these injuries. I was surprised that there were as few head injuries as we saw and there were many, many patients that had rib fractures. Reporter what does that tell you . That there was a highenergy crash. Reporter and the doctor tells me that there are likely three major surgeries scheduled for tomorrow here at this hospital. And he expects about half a dozen to be released tomorrow. We know there were some survivors that were not injured from this accident. Nearby, a lot of them gathered at the 30th Street Train Station here in philadelphia where they were greeted by the red cross. The red cross tells me many of those survivors were too scared to get on another train, that they will remain here in philadelphia until the emotions get back to them. Well get back to you. I know youre getting more information. A u. S. Naval Academy Midshipman and an employee of the Associated Press are among the seven people dead in the derailment. Searchers still trying to account for missing passengers, including a tech company ceo. Lets go back to philadelphia. Cnns kate bolduan is on the scene for us. Kate, what else are you picking up . Reporter wolf i want to point out if you can see over my shoulder, i want to talk about the seven confirmed dead. But we are waiting for this ntsb press conference right now. As you can see, ntsb officials are walking towards us right now. The press conference cameras, if you will. Its right over my left shoulder. Theyll be walking up to address the media right now, wolf. I think we should take a break and listen in. This is a board member from the ntsb leading the investigation. So youre right, lets listen in. Well get the latest. Good afternoon. Youll be briefed today by board member robert l. Sumwalt. Good evening. My name is roblt Robert Sumwalt. Ntsb as many of you know, is an independent federal agency. Were charged by congress to investigate transportation accidents, to determine the probable cause and then issue safety recommendations to try and keep these accidents from happening again. Before i go any further i would like to offer our sin veer condolences for the loss of lives and the injuries that people have sustained and our thoughts and prayers are truly with them. Ntsb investigators began arriving here in philadelphia between 4 00 and 5 00 this morning. And the majority of the go team was in place here in philadelphia by about 9 30 this morning. Upon arrival here on the scene, we coordinated with the local officials, the First Responders and then we conducted a pretty thorough walkthrough of the accident site to be able to get an idea of what were dealing with, sort of the lay of the land. At noon we held an organizational meeting where we established our investigative protocols and parties to the investigation. The investigator in charge is michael flanagan. Mike has over 40 years of railroad experience. And he has more than 15 years of accident investigation experience with the ntsb. He is leading a Multidisciplinary Team of accident investigators that will be looking into the track the signals and im talking about the train control signal system the operations of the train the mechanical condition of the train, to include the brake system recorders, survival factors and Emergency Response. In addition to our Investigative Team we have experts from the ntsbs office of transportation disaster assistance. They are here to help facilitate the needs of the victims and their families. Heres the factual information that we presently have. Last evening amtrak 188, an amtrak northeast regional train departed philadelphias 30th street station at 9 10 p. M. Bound for new york citys penn station station. The train consisted of one locomotive and seven passenger cars. And according to amtrak there were 238 passengers and a crew of five for a total of 243 occupants of the train. At approximately 9 21 p. M. , while traveling through a lefthand turn the entire train derailed. Just moments before the derailment, the train was placed into engineerinduced braking. And this means that the engineer applied full emergency a full emergency brake application. Maximum authorized speed through this curve was 50 Miles Per Hour. When the engineerinduced brake application was applied, the train was traveling at approximately 106 Miles Per Hour hour. Three seconds later when the data to the recorders terminated, the train speed was 102 Miles Per Hour. I will indicate that these are preliminary figures of speed subject to further validation. But were pretty close on that. Thats our first look at it. Its a pretty complex thing. You dont just press a button and it spits out a speed. We have to measure the wheel speed and put that into a formula. But were pretty confident that the train was traveling pretty close to those speeds within one or two Miles Per Hour. The train had recorders. It had forwardfacing video cameras. And it had an event data recorder. Both of these recorders are being sent to our laboratory for analysis at washington, d. C. We did get these initial speeds that we just provided you with from an initial download of the event recorder. Weve released the track back to amtrak and they will begin rebuilding it very soon. The locomotive and all but two of the train passenger cars are currently being moved to a secure location where a detailed examination and documentation can occur. Throughout the next few days, the investigators will work on scene to thoroughly document the accident site and gather factual information. We will be doing a more detailed documentation of the rail cars and the scene. We plan to interview the train crew and other personnel. We would like to interview passengers of the train. We will be conducting a site distance test. Well be testing the signal system the train control signals. Well be testing the braking system and a Detailed Analysis instead of the cursory analysis that i mentioned earlier of the recorders well be doing a very detailed download and analysis of those recorders. Our mission is to find out not only what happened but why it happened so that we can prevent it from happening again. Thats really what were here for, to learn from these things to keep them from happening again. I suspect that our investigators will be here in philadelphia on scene for about a week. I want to emphasize that were not here on scene to determine the cause of the accident while were on scene. Were not going to speculate. Our purpose for being here i like to describe it that we are here to collect perishable evidence, which is that information that will go away with the passage of time. Thats what were here to do to collect that information that will go away with the passage of time. We can do the analysis later. But we have to capture those data very carefully now. I feel like for just arriving on scene this morning i feel like the preliminary information that we have is robust. But we still have a lot to get. I know that you have a lot of questions. We have a lot of questions. And our commitment to you is that we are, as we are discovering factual information, we will be releasing it. I would be looking for a press conference about this time tomorrow to tell you what weve learned tomorrow. And thats the way it works. Our investigators are out in the field doing their jobs during the day. And they report back to me so i can report to you. I would encourage you to follow us on twitter, our twitter handle is ntsb. As i wrap it up id like to thank the First Responders for all of their efforts. Theyve been out here through the nit, through the Early Morning and all day trying to secure this area. We want to thank them for their hard efforts. Now, i will call for questions im going to call for questions. What id like for you to do is raise your hand i will call on you. And once i call on you, please state your name and your outlet. [ inaudible ]. Have you had a chance to talk to the engineer [ inaudible ] have we talked to the engineer . The answer to that is no. But we plan to. This person has gone through a very traumatic event. And we want to give him an opportunity to convalesce for a day or so before we interview him. But thats certainly a high priority for us, to interview the train crew. Tom costello will nbc news. You talked about the 106 Miles Per Hour being the speed. How long did it take him to get up to 106 . In other words, had he been progressively getting faster and faster . Do you have a time line for that . And also were there any whistles or bells going off in the cab warning about the speed . The question is at what point did the train reach 106 Miles Per Hour . Initial examination of the data we have not gone back that far because it is a very Detailed Analysis of reading those data. We wanted to find out the speed so we could report those to you. We will be coming up with the time line. Thats one of the things we will do. But we dont have those exact figures at this point. Any alarms in the cab of the locomotive . We will discover that information. We should through the event recorders. Chris odonnell from fox 29. Are you confident that all the fatalities have been accounted for . You say most of the rail cars have been removed. There are one or two left. Do you know if there are any more fatalities . I dont want to sound bureaucratic. We are here to investigate the accident and thats our lane. The release of the information on the injuries and fatalities, that is the domain of the Philadelphia Office of emergency management. They would have that information and so thats the answer to that. Rosemary connors. You mentioned he applied the pull braking system when this accident happened. Was that enough to bring this speed under a level [ inaudible ] the question is the engineer applied the put the train into emergency braking a few seconds before, moments before the derailment. And in the next three seconds three or four seconds, the speed of the train had only decreased to 102. It takes a long time and distance to decelerate a train. How long would it typically take to after he applied the brakes . To get the speed down below the track speed of 50 miles an hour . He was already in the curve at that point. Youre supposed to enter the curve at 50 miles an hour. [ inaudible ] the question is, is the black box, the event data recorder is that at amtrak . Is that your question . Yes, at the amtrak we took it to thats the question. We took the event recorder to amtraks facilities because they have the equipment locally to download it. So we took it there for the preliminary look. But now were taking it to our own labs in washington, d. C. Question right here. How many event recorders are there . Theres one event recorder. And thats in the locomotive in addition to the event recorder there is a forwardfacing camera. Was the train equipped with any sort of system that could have or should have slowed a train that was going too fast prior to the curve . Was the train equipped with any type of device that could have or should have slowed it down to keep it within its limits . Amtrak throughout a good bit of the northeastern corridor has a system called advanced civil speed enforcement. Thats called acse. Its installed throughout most of the northeast corridor for amtrak. However, it is not installed for this area where the accident occurred, where the derailment occurred. That type of a system we call it a positive train control system. That type of system is designed to enforce the civil speed to keep the train below its maximum speed. And so we have called for positive train control for many, many years. Its on our most wanted list. Congress has mandated that it be instauld by the end of this year. So we are very keen on positive train control. Based on what we know