captions paid for by abc, inc. this is "nightline." >> tonight tragedy on the tracks. federal federal investigators now zeroing in on speed. and tonight questions for the engineer. whywhy was the train going twice as fastfast as it should have been?♪ my thoughts on a leash the pain stacking search for missing passengers after the amtrak crash left at least eight people dead and sent 200 to the hospital. plus -- creed's stuntman scott stash was embracing the life of a rock star with "arms wide open." but hiding dark secrets. tonight he opens up about what led him into a drug-fuelled downward spiral that almost cost him everything and how he's coming back from the brink. and hidden world. lush rain forest white sand beaches.

sounds like paradise. so why is it that fewer people have been here than climbed mt. everest? >> it looks like avatar in here. >> tonight our ginger vee takes us to the other side of the planet in search of buried treasure. but first the "nightline" 5. i need to be where the pikes are. so i use quick books and run my entire business from the cloud. i keep an eye on sales and expenses from anywhere even down here in the dark. i can still see we're having a great month and celebrate accordingly. i run on quick books. that's how i own it.

good evening. thanks for joining us. late-breaking developments tonight about the engineer of that amtrak train being questioned by authorities about the deadly dee railrailment in philadelphia. investigators now focusing on speed. did the engineer make a crucial mistake right before the moment of impact? his camp speaks out exclusively to us tonight with abc's david wright on the scene of the amtrak tragedy. >> reporter: this is what's left of northeast regional amtrak 188. seven cars tangled on the tracks, killing at least seven people injuring hundreds more. even as rescue workers continue to search for survivors investigators are already trying to untangle this mess themselves. only now are they starting to put the pieces together. tonight we learn the name of the engineer 32-year-old brandon bastion of queens new york. an amtrak engineer for the past

five years. police and federal investigators are already questioning him. the question top most on their minds, how come the train clocked 106 miles per hour, more than double the speed limit? >> we're saying that the speed limit through the curve is 50 miles per hour. >> >> reporter: was it human error or a technical failure of some sort? the experts say there has to be some explanation. tonight speaking exclusively by telephone with abc's david curly, the attorney representing the engineer said police grilled his client for six hours today but his client has no recollection of the crash. >> he remembers driving the train. he remembers going through that area generally. has absolutely no recollection of the incident or anything unusual. the next thing he recalls is being thrown around coming to finding his tag, getting his cell phone and dialling 911. >> reporter: for the 238 passengers inside amtrak 188,

this was a routine trip that turned into a nightmare. the moment of impact caught on nearby surveillance cameras that. flash of light there and there as the hurtling train crashed to a stop at port richmond. >> did it feel like the train hit something? >> no, it didn't feel like the train hit anything. it feeled like someone slammed on the brakes. and then the train started really shaking left to right a lot. >> reporter: passengers thrown from their seats luggage and laptops turned into projectiles. entire train cars toppled like toys. >> basically the train tilted over and rolled. the passengers knew they had to get out. but climbing out the window meant venturing onto live train tracks. sparks flying in the smoldering wreckage. >> keep calling, okay? >> crawl forward, sir. >> reporter: outside stunned silence. the shock of the tragedy sinking in. >> it happened in seconds. >> reporter: 9:28 the first american call went out. >> we're going to classify this as a mass casualty incident.

>> one train looks like it's completely in pieces. >> i heard like a big bang. >> reporter: the walking wounded bloody and dazed, some climbing out of the emergency exit, others through the roof of the train. survivors stumbling to safety. pastor joey frajanik heard the commotion. his church is less than a mile away from the crash site. >> we were home right around the corner just relaxing. all of a sudden started to hear choppers, sirens. people were texting us. so we literally ran out of the house. my wife was in her sandals. and we got in the car, shot out to the parking lot over by walmart. we thought we could just deliver water and gatorade and towels. >> reporter: relief supplies for the first responders and an impromptu welcome wagon for survivors. >> we didn't want to get in anybody's way. it wasn't about us. we literally were just delivering and also just giving stuff to police officers and firemen. really anybody who needed something. >> reporter: emergency medical particular anything danielle thor helped one woman who had been trapped upside down inside

one of the rail cars for half an hour. >> philadelphia fire was just working their way towards it. but as soon as they got her, they got her into a vehicle and straight to us to take care of her. >> she was hanging upside down? >> yes. she said she was hanging tangled in bars from the train. >> reporter: even for people who suffered minor scrapes or bruises or broken bones, even for people who walked away without a scratch, some passengers were simply beyond help mostly because the trauma to their heads or their chest was too severe to save them. their stories are heart-ren muching. among them justin zem ser, two months past his 20th birthday. his mom's pride and joy. >> will he was his high school valedictorian and was just finishing up a second year of mid shipman at the united states naval academy. >> reporter: he played football for navy, wide receiver. was headed home to rockaway beach at the end of school year. his journey home ended here. 39-year-old rachel jacobs had texted her husband at 8:45 last night, telling him she had just caught the train. it was the last message he'll

ever get from her. she was ceo of a philadelphia tech start-up commuting from her home in new york. 49-year-old jim gaines worked for the associated press doing digital video. voted a.p.'s geek of the month. survived by his wife and his two teenage children. tonight wells fargo bank confirmed one of its senior vice presidents, abid gilani, is also among the dead. there are others unaccounted for. too. tonight bob gild ersleeve sr. passed out fliers with a picture of his son bob jr. >> bobby is 6'4", blond hair beautiful blue eyes. >> reporter: the number of deaths is likely to climb. the locomotive for amtrak 1888 was brand-new, barely a year old. the tracks were inspected just yesterday. the national transportation safety board is collecting evidence from this box, the event data recorder telling the story of too much speed. the rail lines north of philadelphia are straight. the speed limit 70 miles per hour. but approaching the frankford

neighborhood there's a left corner where the speed cuts to 50 miles per hour. but when amtrak 188 left 30th street station at 9:10 and reached frankford 11 minutes later, it's going 106. by the time the engineer tripped the emergency brakes it was too late. bastion's attorney tells abc news tonight the engineer has a concussion. >> he was pretty beat up. he's got 14 staples in his head. several stitches in his leg. he has one leg, the other leg immobilized with a knee problem. and what he looked was exhausted. >> reporter: the attorney says police have asked for his client's blood and his phone presumably to see if he was impaired or distracted at the time of the crash. the attorney said his client consented to both. technologies exists for a fail safe to slow down even if the operator doesn't hit the brakes soon enough.

>> positive train control is that backup redundant system that will step in and take over and protect all of the passengers. >> reporter: how can we prevent this from ever happening again? we won't know until we have all the answers. and federal investigators say that will take time. i'm david wright for "nightline" in philadelphia. up next, creed former lead singer scott staff talking candid biabout his prescription drug abuse and psychotic episodes and why he's now flying higher than ever. and you'll never guess where this tropical paradise is located. our ginger zee takes us to a magnificent hidden world. i'm brian vickers, nascar® driver. i'm kevin nealon comedian.

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a part of what standardized tests don't measure, very frankly they don't measure the diligence, the potential passion of a student. so it's really a measure of how adept you are to working out a problem quickly. but what if you're brilliant and it might take you twenty minutes, but you can figure out something if you were just given time to do it and show real brilliance. is that a real measure of ability and intelligence? what you can do in one minute on a problem? get out of here.

you know, when you're the lead singer of a multiplatinum rock band sex, drugs and rock and roll isn't just a clever phrase, it's a way of life. but for scott staff of creed, the good times came crashing to a halt when an undiagnosed mental illness spiralled out of control. now he's confronting it with newfound sobriety and a beloved wife who helped save him. coming clean to abc's matt gutman for a "nightline" exclusive with "people" magazine. ♪ welcome to the place ♪ >> scott staff is the shaggy-haired former front man of the megaband creed. the heart throb had multiplatinum albums with an them like "with arms wide open." >> reporter: and songs like "higher." ♪ can you take me higher ♪ >> but the family plan sure

seemed low, stealing this motorized supermarket scooter late last year. why was he making maniacal calls to his son's school. then he posted these creepy videos on facebook. >> i had to sleep in my truck. i had no money, not even for gas or food. i went two days without eating because i had no money. >> reporter: fuelling speculation by many that he was on some meth binge. it was worse for staff, he was in the midst of a 5-month-old psychotic episode. >> i've reached out to the secret service. >> reporter: how close did you think at that time you were close to losing him? >> i expected to get a call like something tragic. >> reporter: he wasn't dead but he was in hell. >> i made crazy accusations toward my wife. i thought people were following me. i thought there was a government

conspiracy to drug me. >> reporter: he says his descent began in 1998 just when he started soaring, telling abc news his nose dive began just after creed's multiplatinum debut album "my own prison." >> i had four number one singles. my career was take off. then all of a sudden the depression came over me. >> reporter: today he says the years of substance abuse was self-medication for undiagnosed bi-polar disorder. >> i didn't want to return to street drugs. i deceived myself. and knowingly went in to see a doctor having the previous diagnosis it made it easy for him to prescribe me aderol. in august of last year with a legal, doctor-prescribed medication which he now admits as an addict he shouldn't have sought out. >> did the doctor know you'd had addiction problems in the past? >> i hid that from him. i did what alcoholics and addicts do. i lied. i started taking more. and i got up to taking double the legal dosage. >> i told him, if you don't stop

this i'm going to leave. >> that's when i checked myself into the holiday inn. and i abruptly stopped the medication. and basically that was like throwing fuel on a fire. >> reporter: but it got worse. it started off on a one-man driving tour across the country, a ticking time bomb. >> i threw a bunch of stuff in my vehicle when i left. all my weapons that i had collected over the years. i was an avid gun collector. i felt compelled to give away some expensive artwork to a church. three salvador dali sketches. somewhere in mississippi. >> you don't even know what town. >> no, i don't. >> you just happened to vet in your truck? >> i had them in the back of my truck, yeah. >> reporter: his wife filed for divorce. she claimed he was irrational, incoherent, delusional psychotic, dangerous and needs to be involuntarily committed to a mental facility again. >> i also called the white house two or three times. i was certified crazy. >> reporter: throughout the ordeal his wife who says she

never stopped loving him, was texting him and sending him pictures of his family pleading with him to get help. >> i mean at one point in time i thought that i was some type of programmed agent for the cia. >> the more your deelusion persists the more it actually sounds like the bourn identity. >> i thought that i was jason bourn. i thought i was just like that. >> reporter: in november 2014 staff called 911. >> i had called 911 because i thought i was having a heart attack. i was in such fear. >> reporter: he sounded so insane the state of florida baker acted him, meaning it forecefully institutionalized him. >> what's amazing is that in the moment of your greatest insanity and hallucination, something pulled you out of that that you decided to call 911 and that you allowed yourself to be treated. >> i can tell you what it was. >> what was it? >> it was love. it was my love for this woman

and my love for our family. >> reporter: and just after christmas, 2014 jaclyn flew to l.a. to talk. scott checked himself into a treatment facility, and it was only then that they learned the source of the psychosis. he was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder, a mood disorder characterized by unexpected shifts in moods. >> well, i was in denial. i didn't want to be bi-polar. it had been mentioned. i just wanted to be someone who suffered with bouts of depression. i was willing to accept that. and this episode really broke me. >> reporter: after a nine-month ordeal, suffering in silence, the couple is speaking out. also opening up to "people" magazine to bring awareness to bi-polar disorder. and their struggle to stay together. >> jaclyn, not only did he freak the family out, but he humiliated you guys. can you forgive him for all that's happened? >> i mean i can definitely

forgive. i don't know if i can forget it. i mean, it's forever. but i have to. i have to forgive. i can't let this haunt me forever. >> i'm writing a lot of songs for my wife right now. >> reporter: and with that diagnosis, the man who says he was caged by this disease finally getting the right treatment. his road trips not much longer these days than strolling to the lake behind his florida home. >> i come out here every day and try to meditate. it's the first thing that i do. i wake up in the morning. it's just something to get my thoughts outside of myself and on something bigger. and just kind of focus on what really matters in my life. and you know that's my family. >> reporter: for "nightline," i'm matt gutman boca raton, florida. >> now, that's what i call a happy ending. "people" magazine on stands now. up next where on earth is ginger zee taking us now?

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at perdue, we know fresh chicken. well, not that kind of fresh. but we do take extra steps in our farms, trucks that deliver daily and everywhere in between... ... to bring you a fresh tasting chicken. perdue. we believe in a better chicken. tonight our ginger zee takes us to one of the most magnificent buried treasures deep inside a mountain inside a jungle on the other side of the planet. getting there is a gigantic undertaking. but as you're about to see with a little help from some spectacular drone footage, it is so worth the effort. >> reporter: we entered through

a claustrophobic crevice. then it opens up and drops down and down. at the bottom i feel like i've landed on another planet. a subterranean rushing river. now i find myself in mother nature's sculpture garden filled with prehistoric boulders and stalagmites, gigantic columns built up by calcium-dripping water. >> you can see me about 400 feet below the top of one of the world's largest caverns. inside a mountain in central vietnam and was only found a couple of decades ago. >> after a grueling hour, an illuminating light 1,000 feet overhead. >> every turn there's something else. >> this colossal sky light where the chamber ceiling collapsed is

called a dolight. it's a lush green oasis. sand beaches lit up below. >> it looks like "avatar" in here. it doesn't feel real. >> no. >> this is that hidden world we've been chasing. sondong or mountain river caves, the planet's largest. >> just look at this! it is unbelievable! i'm standing on a colossal stalagmite, the jewel in the crown of sondong cave. we press on. suddenly i'm in a jungle under a second monster sky light. not atop a mountain but inside it. >> you don't normally get trees and jungles in caves. that's why it's quite different. >> jungle plants and animals from above adapting to this unique subterranean netherworld. what a view from those drone cameras. breath-taking beauty like a fantasy world come to life. the punishing journey worth every ounce of sweat.

>> it's something this grandiose was just found, imagine what's is out there. >> gorgeous. our thanks to ginger zee for that stung report and to you for watching abc news. tune into "good morning america" tomorrow. as always we're online 24/7 on our "nightline" facebook page and on abcnews.com. good night, america. [dramatic music] ♪ ♪ >> ahh! ahh-ahh! hello, and welcome to millionaire. i'm terry crews. some of may know me from brooklyn nine-nine and i'm lucky enough to also be here hosting millionaire. [cheers and applause]

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