tonight, the train disaster here in philadelphia. a tragedy on the tracks leaves at least seven dead, two hundred injuries, some in critical condition. the train was going faster than 100 miles an hour. more than twice the speed limit around a sharp curve. the victims, including a young navy midshipman on his way home. a father on two treling on business. and the survivors describing the horror inside the train. the panic to get out and to pull the injured to safety. also tonight, vanished. the frantic search for six american marines on an aid mission in nepal. missing for more than a day. what happened to the chopper? knight begin -- "nightly news" begins right now.

>> tragedy on the tracks. this is "nbc nightly news." reporting tonight from philadelphia, lester holt. good evening. there is no better way to show you the scope of our lead story than tonight than from the air. we're talking about that deadly derailment of an amtrak regional train along the busiest rail corridor in the nation. let's show you what it looks like from the air, the crumpled wreckage, six cars laying on their side. the locomotive was put back on the tracks a short while ago. we can see ntsb investigators working the scene. as the camera pulls back you get a sense of the curve there. the curve we now know was being negotiated at a very high rate of speed. at least seven were killed and 200 injured when that washington to new york train, according to the ntsb jumped the tracks last night going faster than 100 miles an hour. tonight as investigators search for answers, travel has been disrupted indefinitely in this area for hundreds of thousands. our team is in place

tonight on the ground to cover it all. we're going to start off with nbc's tom costello. hello, tom. >> reporter: hi there, lester. i am right below now. in fact, down the street and over my shoulder is where the rescue remeans. well still have fire rescue on the scene and recovery under way. they've the police sniffer dogs in today and cranes to pull up the cars. they have been concerned there might still be other victims out there that maybe they didn't see or may be underneath the cars. we also learned today the name of the engineer. he is brandon bastion. he was navigating the curve at 106 miles an hour. that is more than double the posted speed limit. on the tracks on philadelphia's north side today, investigators were still picking through the remains of amtrak train 188. already data from the critical black box suggests the train was traveling more than 100 miles per hour, more than twice the

posted limit. going into that curve, he was traveling at 160 miles per hour? >> correct. >> reporter: then what happened. >> shortly after he entered the curve, he puts the emergency brakes on the train. >> reporter: slams on the brakes. >> reporter: too late? >> well, the train derailed at that time so i would say it was too late. >> shut down the entire northeast corner. we have people on the tracks and a couple of cars overturned. >> reporter: in pitch black conditions firefighters and police faced an incredible scene pulling the dead and injured from the twisted wreckage of seven train cars that had gone off the tracks. one of the cars upside down. >> we will classify this as a mass casualty incident. >> reporter: in all more than 200 people injured. philadelphia mayor michael nutter today. >> we are heartbroken of what has happened here. we have not experienced anything like this in modern times. we will get to the bottom of it and figure out what

happened, why it happened. that will take some time. >> reporter: on board, 243 passengers and crew members, many of them returning home, including iraq war veteran and former pennsylvania congressman patrick murphy, who was in the cafe car when it lurched off the tracks. >> at that moment i thought -- i thought i was a goner. it was so violent. i'm a 6'1" 200 pound guy. i was thrown like a rag doll, headfirst. >> reporter: murphy pushed out the train's window and helped others escape. one of the passengers unconscious, unable to move his arms or legs. >> there was people crying and screaming for help. >> reporter: also on the train nbc nightly news producer janelle richards. >> somebody help me! >> reporter: philadelphia police say far the engineer has declined to talk to investigators. >> they want to know when he went off duty he went to sleep, what he did while he was off duty. >> reporter: also tonight we're learning this section of track lacked a critical railway safety feature

called positive train control, or ptc which can monitor and control trains in a safe stop. >> based on what we know right now, we feel that had such a system been installed in the section of track, this accident would not have occurred. >> reporter: amtrak service along the northeast corridor remains suspended. no indication when it will restart. lester? >> tom costello, thanks. you mentioned technology and how this could have been prevented. we know now this train was going at an excessive rate of speed. what could have prevented it? we asked nbc's peter alexander. to take a closer look. >> reporter: why was the train going so fast? it's still not known. >> it could be a mechanical issue. it could be a lack of awareness or training, it could be an operator issue. >> reporter: last night's crash is hauntingly similar to this dramatic high speed disaster in spain two years ago. the train flew off the rail going over 100 miles an hour. twice the speed limit as it headed into a turn. 79 people were killed.

experts insist the revolutionary technology called ptc could make accidents like this a thing of the past. pct is a sensitive ray of censors. even using satellites to track the movements. if a train is going too fast the computer warns the crew. if an engineer doesn't slow down, the computer activates the brakes. pct prevents collisions too, stopping a train from blowing through red signals is an operator is distracted. speed his killed here before. in new york investigators say an engineer fell asleep as his train roared into a sharp curve at more than 80 miles an hour. ptc is on america's most wanted list. sections off the railroad from philadelphia to washington had ptc involved not the stretch of track where last night's crash occurred. >> this is exactly the type of incident that ptc is designed to

prevent. and so we have seen this before. and we will continue to see it again until ptc is installed. >> reporter: amtrak is supposed to have the entire northeast corridor equipped with ptc by the end of this year. but congress has been fighting over whether to extend that deadline, lester, by years. >> peter alexander, peter, thanks. those of who do business in this part of the country often use this rail line at any time. especially in the evening, people coming back from business, coming to see family. there was a young navy midshipman on leave among the victims. nbc's stephanie gosk tells us more about those who lost their lives here. >> reporter: justin zemser was a second year midshipman at the naval academy. he was supposed to be home by 10:30. >> there was a derailment and i kept calling hospitals. nothing. >> reporter: this morning zemser's mother got the awful news her son had died. >> he was wonderful. he was absolutely wonderful. everybody looked up to to my son.

there's no other words i could say. >> reporter: jim gaines worked for the associated press. the 48-year-old father of two was killed on his way home after meetings in d.c. >> he would just do things to try to make your day better. >> reporter: abid gilani and rachel jacobs with a young toddler at home didn't survive the crash either. four of the seven passengers who died on train 188. bob gildersleeve is missing too. >> please help me find my dad. >> reporter: today his family printed posters with his picture. >> blond hair, beautiful blue eyes. >> reporter: others have found their loved ones here at temple university hospital where dr. cushing and his team performed surgerieries and set bones all night long. >> we're fortunate there weren't more deaths. what little i've seen suggested things could have been worse. >> reporter: jeff cutler agrees. he was in the second car and felt it launch into the air. >> i felt like we were flying. >> reporter: you had

time to feel that sensation? >> i recall that sensation. it eventually tipped over with a thud. >> reporter: left with just bruises, he knows he's one of the lucky ones. ten passengers are still listed as critical. eight of them are here at temple university. but doctors say that they do not face life threatening situations. lester? >> nbc's stephanie gosk, thank you. at a thousand feet as we look down at that train, it is frightening enough. but imagine being on that train at night and trying to find your way out. a member of our nbc news family janelle richardson was on the train and thankfully is all right. i spoke to her about her ordeal. you cover these things on a regular basis. we cover horrible things. what is it like to find yourself in one of them? >> i think i was operating under shock. >> go go go!

>> my first instinct was get to the back door. you remember where it was. you're not far away. try to get back there. and get out. >> i'm listening to this. >> how do we get out? >> "how do we get out." >> people were panicked. smoke was starting to fill the car. i remember thinking will this blow up? can something catch on fire. >> what did you hear? >> screams, cries. people asking for cell phones. people asking for t-shirts. people asking for help. then once we actually got out, the fear actually only increased. because the next question was, oh, my goodness, could another train be coming down these tracks and then finally, what felt like forever, i saw over a dozen flash lights flashing in the darkness. i was like first responders are here. >> my conversation

with janelle riches. we're happy to know she's okay. we appreciate her work in being involved in the story. we told you at the top of the broadcast, this is the busiest rail travel corridor in the country. let me show you by the numbers. amtrak and eight commuter railroads use it carrying 750,000 passengers every day. 2,000 trains cross through here every day. shutting down this corridor for one day could cost an estimated $100 million in travel delays and lost productivity. that's why it is so vital. and that is why even now as we look at that picture, we have seen fresh rail being laid to the side. they are prepared as soon as the wreckage is cleared to get the tracks back in order. in the meantime, there is a political element to all this. hours after the tragedy here in philadelphia, the fight for funding for amtrak flared up. we've got more on that from nbc's kelly o'donnell. >> reporter: good evening, lester. the shock and tragedy of what happened in philadelphia made a long-standing battle over amtrak funding more raw and emotional. democrats wanted to

see an increase in funding. in fact, they look at the accident and say it's an example of the need to improve our infrastructure. republicans who always argue that amtrak needs to turn a profit and not rely so much on taxpayers, would not budge. democrats asked for $2.5 billion. republicans actually approved a cut to $1.1 billion. this is really about a battle of differing priorities. republicans say they want to hold the line on domestic spending. and democrats, who have more constituents who actually use amtrak say riders need more resources. lester? >> all right. kelly o'donnell tonight. kelly, thanks very much. we'll have much more on this train derailment from over philadelphia. but there are other big stories we want to get to including that search for the six u.s. marines on an aid mission in nepal. they disappeared over a day ago in their helicopter during a relief mission. nbc's katy tur updates

us from nepal. >> reporter: for a second day u.s. military helicopters took off to scour the unforgiving terrain of eastern nepal. looking for a huey like this one that disappeared tuesday while delivering earthquake relief to a remote village. the missing, six marines and two nepalese soldiers. among the marines, his family says captain chris norgren of wichita. the missing huey was equipped with an emergency beacon, secure radio and gps, as well as strobes, flairs, signal mirrors, and a satellite phone. but so far there has been no trace. >> some of the communications that they possess require a line of sight to satellites. they could be located in an area where the terrain is actually preventing them from broadcasting. >> reporter: the search continues and so does the relief effort. right here was a nine story building this one right here was a five story building.

they were standing yesterday morning. survivors have been pulled from the rubble, but the chances of finding more and of finding the missing huey grow dimmer by the hour. how concerned are you? >> i'm very concerned. i'm concerned as if one of my own children didn't come home at night. we'll continue to find them. >> reporter: katy tur, nbc news, katmandu . still ahead, more of our coverage from above the amtrak derailment scene in philadelphia. and a look at how to get out alive in case of an emergency. would you know what to do?

we remain in the air over philadelphia and the sight of that amtrak derailment. one of the remarkable things you see from this altitude you get a real appreciation for that curve as the train leaves downtown philadelphia and comes along here, and imagine the train hurtling down that track on that curve at better than 100 miles an hour. also imagine you are in that crash, not like an airliner where you received a safety briefing. would you know what to do to get out alive? we asked nbc's jeff rossen to take a look. >> reporter: the images are frightening. desperate passengers struggling to escape from the mangled train. >> keep crawling, okay. >> where am i crawling? >> reporter: yelling in the dark for help frantically trying to pry open the doors. >> go, go go!

>> help me! >> reporter: if this were your train, would you know how to get out? >> in an emergency there are three ways to go get out. >> reporter: scott sauer is the safety expert for septa. >> every train in the country has emergency signs. if you see the sign, you can open the main door of the train you came on and follow the instructions. >> reporter: even the conductor or engineer are too busy or too chaotic to open the door, you can open it yourself? >> absolutely. >> reporter: can i try? >> yes. >> reporter: lift and pull open the rain and push this red handle down and the door is released. i can open it the rest of the way. by the way, this is a pretty big drop here, so you want to be careful getting out. you can open the windows yourself too. >> in every train car there is emergency exit windows. you take it, pull it, pull ought the rubber from around that window. discard it. pull it toward you and go out the window. remember, it's still a seven-foot drop to the ground. >> reporter: in most train crashes there's fire and smoke.

how do you get out alive when you can't see. recently we filled this car with simulated smoke to show you. >> it's going to be chaotic. you want to get on the floor. this is where you can breathe. we have glow in the dark striping on the floor that is going to take you where you need. >> reporter: with more than 2000 train accidents last year alone, tips you may need to survive. jeff rosen, nbc news philadelphia. >> we're back with more news in a moment including a life and death decision in boston.

as we come back over philadelphia, and the derailment site it looks like they have built a road to bring the wreckage of the train cars at some point when they're released by the ntsb. while we watch that, we're also watching another big story playing out in boston. it's a life and death decision now in the hands of the jury in

the marathon bombing trial. more from nbc's pete williams. >> reporter: lester the jury of five men and seven women deliberated briefly today and will resume tomorrow. prosecutors say only the death penalty can bring justice for the marathon bombings. they said dzhokhar tsarnaev acted as a terrorist to make a political point, and that he and his older brother tamerlan were partners in crime and brothers in arms. but his lawyers say if not for tamerlan, who became radicalized the bombings wouldn't have happened. they say he would serve a life sentence at the prison in colorado. an eye for an eye is not who we are. his lawyers are hoping they can get at least one juror to vote for life because to choose the death penalty, the jury must be unanimous. lester? >> pete williams in boston. pete, thanks. a divisive step announced by the vatican today. it will formally recognize palestinian statehood. it is a move pope francis has been

hinting at for some time. the u.s. and u.s. oppose recognizing palestinian. the foreign ministry calls it a disappointing move by the vatican and says it does not promote the peace process. we will back with more from philadelphia, including some of the heroes here.

as we look at some of the tattered carriages from the derailment, we want to take a look at some of the heros who emerged from the chaos of the train crash. with get more on that from nbc's rehema ellis. >> reporter: harry cranes and his 16-year-old son chris were on their way home from the grocery store just blocks away. what did you hear and what did you see that made you come to the crash site? >> flash of light and a lot of noise. >> reporter: like nothing you'd seen before? >> no. i never heard anything like the noise. >> reporter: and when you got to the crash site, chris, what were the sounds you were hearing on-site? >> people yelling out. please can you help us. can you get us out of here. help. help, please. >> i helped a pregnant female. she had her side and she was more worried about the people that were in the train injured than her own self.

>> reporter: kind of like a mother? >> yes. >> reporter: you don't know if something is going to blow up, burn down or fall down. what were you thinking about your safety of your own son? >> that he's doing the right thing by helping. and that's the way i brought him up, to always help others. >> i'm thinking if that train car explodes, something happens, what am i going to do? >> reporter: but you kept going. >> i didn't want to stop. it takes a lot out of you to not help. you want to do everything in your power to get everybody that you can off that train. >> reporter: harry says he wants no credit for what he and his son did, saying he's just an average joe. but others may say, not today. rehema ellis, nbc news, philadelphia. and that is going to do it for us on this wednesday night. a big thanks to our colleagues at wcau here in philadelphia for their amazing coverage, also for providing these views of the wreckage of that amtrak train. i'm lester holt. for all of us at nbc

news and our colleagues here in philadelphia, thank you for watching and good night. nbc bay area news starts now. >> right now at 6:00, tracking a developing story. it turns out the engineer of that amtrak derailment in philadelphia worked here in the bay area. good evening and thank you for joining us. >> the deadly crash was in philly, but the story stretches here. as we first reported on our 5:00 newscast 32-year-old brandon bastion worked for caltrain. caltrain officials won't say what job he held here, but he was reportedly a san francisco resident before moving to new

york. this is a photo from his myspace page. bastion has not given a formal statement to investigators, but he has hired a lawyer. so what happened 24 hours ago? excessive speed likely the cause. the ntsb says the train was traveling at 106 miles per hour in a 50 miles per hour zone. investigators are pouring over the scene as we speak trying to find out why the train was going so fast as it approached a curve right there in philadelphia. bastion's cell phone records are being reviewed to see if he was distracted at the time of this crash. it could take months to get definitive answers. we continue our coachverage of this story. >> new at 6:00 tonight, a major fight across the bay area. the issue of rent control. how much should it be, and how many property owners should