Welcome back. Lets get a check of the day ahead. The president and first morning. The dali llama is expected to attend that as well. A new york judge will hear arguments today on whether to release the secret grand jury records in the eric garner chokehold case. Hopefully well have details later on this day for you. Stick around. Morning joe starts right now. It is 6 00 on this east coast. Welcome to morning joe. We have a lot to get to this morning, guys. Well start right here in new york. New details are emerging about tuesday nights train accident north of new york city that left six people dead. Investigators still trying to determine how exactly an suv ended up on a Railroad Crossing as a packed metronorth train
was speeding. Thats where we find nbc news correspondent tom costello who is following the developments there. Reporter mika cold good morning to you. Theyve moved the train or the burned out remains of the train further down the tracks. Theyre beginning to process removing all of that off the train tracks. As the medical examiner goes to Family Dental records to identify those people who did not make it out alive. The First Arriving fire and ems units found a scene of carnage, twisted recwreckage, fire and smoke, and passengers climbing through windows desseparate separate to escape a burning train. More ambulances are required. Reporter it happened at 6 30 p. M. , rush hour on the packed metronorth train line that serves new york citys northern commuter towns. The front two cars smoke billowing out from everywhere. Reporter witnesses say an suv was sitting very near the tracks when the trains crossing
arm came down on the car. The mother of three got to the of check for damage. Exploding on impact. As the train carried the suv 1,000 feet down the tracks the electrified third rail was ripped free, tearing into the first train car. Passenger chris gross was inside. Flames came up. They were about a foot away from my face. After that happened you know people are screaming, crying. Weve got one possibly trapped in the train, possibly alive. Ive got doas in the train as well. Multiple injuries. Reporter in all, six people were killed including the driver of the suv. 15 people injured, some seriously. Lacerations, contusion, crush injuries, open fractures, dislocations, smoke inhalation and flame burn injuries. Reporter through the day the suv remained embedded in the front of the train as ntsb inves gatorser rooifd on the scene. Witnesses told police the driver
may have been stuck in traffic trapped on the tracks when the train approaches. She turns, gets back in the car. Slight hesitation. And then moves forward and at that instant the train came. Reporter piecing together how the accident happened will be part of the ntsb investigation. Was there any indication that the crossing signals or crossing arms were not working properly . At this point we have no indication to believe that they were that they were doing anything other than operating properly. Reporter the dead include the suv driver 49yearold ellen brodie 53yearold eric vandercar, a father of two, and 69yearold walter lidtke a cure rater at the metropolitan museum of art. Reporter metropolitan has been under scrutiny in the series of years for accidents. Now the ntsb is looking forward to interviewing both the engineer and the conductor on what they saw on tuesday night. Tom, thank you. Another victim we are learning
more about this morning. 36yearold robert durks. He was a married father of two and research scientist. 41yearold of danbury, connecticut, and 42yearold joseph natov of new york were also killed in the crash. Both were employees of jp morgan. Its just an incredibly horrific story and perplexing what happened. It really is perplexing. This train just cuts right through where we all live. Oh, no its also right near in the community, so many people. Theres a hospital right there, where they went. The Westchester Medical Center with so many injured. I know it well. You drive through this year and have you had i know in my town where the train comes through its pretty slow when it going through. Were there places through where, you know because youve lived in westchester and lived in this
areas. Have there ever been times when youve been in a close call like that or youve known people in a close call like this . No. Seems unusual. It does. You know i think a lot of people rightfully so looking to the history of metronorth. But the more you hear about this the more it sounds like this woman on the tracks had nothing to do with the train, i dont think. Right. Well have an investigation. But the woman on the tracks in the New York Times there are really harrowing account from the one eyewitness who was behind here and talks about screaming back up, back up. He backed his own car up to give her space to back up. And he said ill never know why but she got back in the car and drove forward instead of backing up. She thought she was in reverse. Sheer panic. Ive done that. What is unusual, at least to my memory in terms of events like this is the fire on the train itself. That to me raises a whole series of questions. Why did the first car become
engulfed in flames . May have had something to do with that third rail this got ripped up penetrated the car and was dragged for several hundred yards. Crazy. To the other major disaster weve been following overnight, the death toll from yesterdays plane crash . Taiwan stands at 31. 15 people have been hospitalized. Another 12 are still missing. And as the search for survivors continues, the pilot is being credited for steering the plane away from Populated Areas, likely saving more lives. Nbcs ian williams reports. Reporter the dramatic final moments captured by the dash cams of passing cars. The trans asia twin prop claim clipping an elevated roadway before slamming into the river below. 58 passengers and crew trapped in the fuselage. Upsidedown and half underwater. Rescuers rushed to the scene. A young child among the firsts of more than a dozen pulled to safety. A massive operation, painstakingly extracting survivors as an anxious crowd gathered on the river bank. Survivors were rushed to local hospitals. On the elevated roadway, debris where the plane hit and a battered taxi. The same one that can be seen just ahead in this dash cam video. The driver and passenger stunned but alive. The video shows the plane narrowly missing nearby apartment buildings. Fueling speculation that the pilot deliberately swerved to avoid them. The plane went down just two minutes after taking off from the airport. Posted online the pilots recorded distress call engine flameout, he said. Suggesting possible engine trouble. Ask propellers you can see this one is spinning at a faster speed than this one. You can see all four blades here. And theyre almost stopped or much slower than this one. This indicates that this engine
is producing power while this one may very well not be produce producing power. Reporter the cause should be known soon. The black boxes have already been recovered. The battered fuselage was hoisted from the river as the search continues for the missing with the death toll almost certain to rise. Joining us live now from beijing, nbc yus correspondent ian williams. Ian, whats the latest there . We suspected this yesterday as we saw the way he pitched the plane perhaps to avoid the buildings and the bridge and put it down in the water. What else are you hearing about that . Reporter thats not been confirmed, although that is the theory. Looking at the dramatic pictures it does seem that he went out of his way to avoid those tall apartment blocks just beside that elevated roadway. Missing them narrowly and steering the plane down and into the river. A big loss of life yes, 31 people so far confirmed. 12 still missing. But it could have been far, far
worse had it plowed into one of those buildings. Now, they continued today to pull debris out of the river, large parts of the aircraft. As they looked to try to locate those 12 people still missing, but divers and Officials Say the water is very murky and its moving far fast, which has hampered their efforts. Interestingly, that recording that we heard yesterday, mayday mayday, mayday suggesting also that there was an engine problem. That had been recorded by an enthusiast website, although a wellregarded one. Today officials confirmed that that is genuine. So that does point towards engine problems. The engines were pulled out of the river today, so investigators now have them. They also now have the black box. So theoretically it shouldnt take too long now for them to come up with a cause for this crash, willie. All right. Ian williams in beijing on an
incredible story. Mika, before you go to the next story that we showed video of a father carrying a toddler out of the wreckage in ians piece. Amazing story. Plane crashes. Guy cant find his toddler. After three minutes, climbs out of the wreckage and sees his young boy floating in the water. No said he turned blue and was unconscious. The father on the spot gives him cpr and revives his son. Oh, my gosh. Saving so they survive the plane crash, then hes got to climb out of the plane from underwater, finds his son, saves his life and the kid is going to be okay. My god. I have chills. Thats incredible. All right. Moving on now. Jordans King Abdullah is vowing a, quote, relentless war afrl isis video appears to show a jordanian pilot being burned alive. The u. S. Has confirmed that United Arab Emirates suspended air strikes against isis after the pilot was captured. It was concerned about the lack of search and rescue teams if a plane went down. It comes as arab leaders that
the white house is not permitting enough firepower to defeat the terror group. Meanwhile, the entire Senate Armed Services committee is calling for state and defense departments to increase military aid to that country. President obamas reportedly prepared to ask lawmakers for a new authorization for military force against isis. Ive talked to some friends in the region and actually talked to an american former american official who last night told me that isis has, i will just say, his words, hes been over there for a couple of decades. Isis has screwed with the wrong king. Said that hes going to light them up. Said hes going to knowing him, the way he thinks the way he operates its going to be a take no prisoners approach. And that all they have done all isis has done is put the king in a better position to use his power to go after them. And this is this is, again,
we talked about it yesterday, isis has a death wish. Well this week they may get their wish granted. And they screwed with the wrong king. Its also im told going to put some pressure perhaps enormous pressure on turkey to stop turning a blind eye to isis recruits coming through turkey into syria to join isis. It would be about time. Joining us now from washington we have retired fourstar general barry. What do you make of what you just heard from joe and mike . Isis is not actually doing very well. They were stupid in messing around cow bankoubani. Occasionally killing shiite muslim muslims. Primarily this is group of murder us thugs. But theyre doing pretty well on the ground. They still control mosul, the second largest city in iraq. And they are not affectively countered by the syrian or iraqi armed forces. I do think the Jordanian Armed forces and Intelligence Service are absolutely first rate. This is a huge mistake, this brutal murder of the young pilot. We have a lot of testimony on the hill yesterday, former cia director mike moral was warn og of long fight in his testimony against islamic state. Take a listen. What can be done in response . Not much unless the coalition is willing to put more Ground Troops into iraq and possibly into syria, there is very little we can do. What would it take . I think it would take 100,000. That simply doesnt exist here and it doesnt exist in the other coalition countries. Weve been hearing for some time, general, if you wanted to feed isis on the ground youre going to have to put feel on the grouped and people go on to say theres not the will in the United States or the middle east
to put boots on the ground. Can we defeat isis if we dont put boots on the ground along with our allies . Yeah well, i think it would be a huge mistake. Not just domestic politics but also a military one to introduce Ground Combat units in the middle east. This is a struggle between kurd shia sunni. This is not going to be resolved by u. S. Combat forces. We should be doing much better in supporting our allies in the region. That means directly arming the kurds, supporting their jordanians with substantial assets to include their refugee problem. So i think the agency and the special Ops Community probably need to be better engaged. The white house needs to stop micromanaging military forces on the ground. This airsearescue capability is the example. Let the air force sort it out and do what needs to be done. But at the end of the day this
is not a fight for the u. S. To get involved in on the ground. General, can you give us an idea what are the numbers, isis numbers, troops on the ground. Theyre all over the map. The number thats commonly used is 30,000 some odd fighters. A couple thousand foreign fighters a couple dozen u. S. Its not a substantial force but it is ameshed in mosul, its in raka,fallujah. So its hard to get at them. Certainly with just air power. You need people on the ground but that should be kurds and jordanians and iraqis and others. Were forced into this bizarre situation though where de facto and fighting isis were almost allies of both the iranians and assad, the murderer of 200,000 syrians. So the dilemma is intent theres no easy solution here. Thank you so much general. Ashton carter appears to be on his way of becoming the next defense secretary. After a pretty smooth confirmation hearing wednesday he promised the Senate Armed Services committee he would be an independent voice if confirmed and disagreed with president obama when necessary. His testimony showed the two men appear to be at odds on several issues including sending arms to ukraine. We need to support the ukrainians in defending themselves. The nature of those arms i cant say right now because i dont have i havent conferred with our military leader or ukrainian leaders. But i incline in the direction of providing them with arms including to get to what im sure your question is lethal arms. With us now from the ukrainian capital nbc news chief global correspondent bill neely. Bill, secretary of state john kerry landed in ukraine this morning. What should we expect from his visit . Yes, good morning, guys. From a bleak and chilly kiev. That could also some up the prospect for my diplomatic breakthrough here or any chance of this war deescalating. The last time john kerry was here was last march. Since then crimea has been absorbed into russia. Ukraine has virtually split apart. Weve got a war with 5,300 dead. A Million People on the run and rising. John kerry arrives, as i say, to a very bleak prospect. He will meet ukraines president and prime minister. They will be putting the emphasis on a diplomatic solution but so far diplomacy has signally failed to stop this conflict. Of course, the elephant in the room, if you like is the issue of weapons. Ukraine will be spelling out what it needs and why it needs weapons. And briefly that is it needs as many weapons as it can get its hands on because the rebels are supplied by russia although of course president putin denies
that. But they have new weapons systems. The ukrainian weapons and the Systems Ukraine has are decades old and they are not stopping a rebel advance which is now really gaining momentum. No decisions will be made today. No announcements will be made today. But you heard Ashton Carter there saying hes very much inclined to supply weapons to ukraine. But that carries huge risks, huge dangers. I was going to say, what is Vladimir Putins response to the going to the United States arming ukraine . Certainly i would guess no better than, you know the russians arming mexico with weapons against texas. Reporter well, exactly. You know theres a danger in even talking about this because if you dont follow through, then maybe the United States is seen as weak. We only have to remember the idea of red lines on chemical weapons in syria to know how
dangerous talk can cost the United States reputation. But also theres a danger in supplying such weapons. I mean theyre meant to deter Vladimir Putin. In fact, they may not do that. He may become even more popular. It may turn a essentially regional conflict into virtually a proxy war between the u. S. And russia. So supplying any kind of weapons, and there is a difference between defensive weapons like armored humvees and drones and offensive weapons, and you heard Ashton Carter hint that he might support lethal weapons. There are gradations of weaponry that can be supplied. By every one carries a grave risk. Bill neely, thank you very much. In politics Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is leading a new poll out of new hampshire. Hes ahead of jeb bush points with senator rand paul a distant
third. Two weeks ago walker had just 8 support with a generic someone else beating everyone except romney. The Washington Post reports walker has built a big network of donors in all 50 states thanks to running three campaigns in the last four years. We have still a lot to get to this morning. One more story here. Jeb bush is beginning to unveil what his campaign focus may look like the he officially launches a president ial bid. Speaking in detroit, the former governor discussed Economic Opportunities saying conservative principles can restore the american dream. Bush also noted the challenges of his last name when it comes to president ial politics. If i was to go beyond the consideration of running i would have to deal with this and turn this this fact into an opportunity, to share who i am to connect on a human level with people. I love my dad. In fact, my dad is the greatest man alive. If anybody disagrees, well go
outside unless y