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: s

nbc's tom costello has late details. tom? >> hi, lester, good evening. the key questions are why was the train speeding, and was it along with two other trains hit by a projectile minutes before 188 went off the tracks? tonight, the fbi says the shattered glass on the derailed amtrak train was not caused by a bullet, but the ntsb hasn't ruled out that another projectile was thrown at the train, possibly disorienting the engineer who was new on the tracks. two other trains may have been hit. in philadelphia this morning -- >> you were the first this line? >> first one. >> first one in line gets a hug. >> oh, yeah! >> reporter: the mayor was on hand as the first passenger s left for new york. 40,000 amtrak passengers traveled the northeast corridor every day. with the line shut down since tuesday most were ready to climb aboard. >> i trust amtrak executives and all the amtrak people would not put us on the trains if they didn't think it was safe . >> i'm sure they have done the work and installed the right equipment. >> reporter: clearing the wreckage pose

we get the latest from nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: they are some of the most popular mid-sized suvs on the market. put through new crash tests at the insurance institute for highway safety, and this crest it critical. the small overlap test replicates what happens when the front corner of the vehicle hits a poll, tree or car. missing the front structure of the vehicle that might otherwise protect the people inside. the kind of serious accident that often means firefighters must cut victims out of the car. 25% of car accident injuries occur in just this type of accident. >> we have lower leg injuries. femur fractures in the upper leg and hip injuries and then sometimes depending on how far it goes we'll have internal injuries. >> reporter: it's pretty serious stuff. >> yeah, real serious. >> reporter: the good news three of the seven suvs tested earned a good or acceptable rating. the ford flex the jeep wrangler four-door and receiving the top score, the nissan mirano. >> this is what we like to see, the occupant compartment held up well keeping intrusion to a minimum. >> reporter: f

our tom costello is working that story for us tonight. he has important information now. >> reporter: the size of the recall is stunning. nearly 34 million vehicles nationwide now involved. 11 different automakers. roughly one out of every four cars on the road. after five months of insisting its air bag deflators are not defective, the takata corporation now admits that's not true. >> takata has agreed to declare that air bag inflaters are deflecting. it is recalling these inflaters and these recalls are nationwide. >> reporter: the government says five people in the u.s. have been killed by defective air bags including 1-year-old ashley parham who died after a minor fender bender when the air bag exploded. >> i got there wfr seconds and watched an 18-year-old girl who had her whole life in front of her literally die in front of me inside that vehicle. >> reporter: brandy brewer lost an eye. >> it makes me angry. angry that this has been an ongoing problem, and it's still going on now. this is something that should have been fixed years

back to you, carl. >> tom costello in philadelphia tonight, tom, thank you. >>> tonight marathon bomber dzhokhar tsarnaev is back at a federal detention facility outside of boston where he'll be held until a formal sentencing hearing in a few months. the sentence of death penalty is not legally binding until a judge officially orders it. at that time victims and their families will be able to address tsarnaev directly. he'll then be moved to another prison and his lawyers will begin an appeal process that could last more than a decade. >>> most of the republican presidential contenders are in iowa today for one of the party's biggest gatherings so far this election season. despite the wide field, attention remains focused on jeb bush after a week in which he could not escape the spotlight. nbc's senior correspondent chris jansing is in des moines for us tonight. chris, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, carl, this is a big deal for the iowa republican party. it's a major fundraiser but also a major opportunity for the presidential candidates to make their case in a room full of 13

. >> reporter: this is tom costello. criminal experts say dna technology has come a long way since the o.j. simpson trial in 1995. today, criminologists can get a match from a sample as small as a fingernail or smaller. at the forensics lab in maryland, they test 2000 samples and dna has a long shelf life. >> it could last for a very long time. are we talking days, weeks, months? >> they can last for years of. >> reporter: they can last for years? >> certainly. >> reporter: am criminal can leave dna evidence at a crime scene without knowing it. skin cells left on a gas can, saliva sells on a wine bottle, blood, saliva and other bodily fluids. within a week police in washington quickly recovered dna on a pizza crust to quickly identify suspect daron dylon wint. joe ross is a specialist at the boston crime lab. >> when you take a sip of something or you bite something, you are leaving saliva and your dna on that sample. typically, there will be a lot of dna in that. >> reporter: forensics experts say all they need is a sam

>> tom costello, thank you very much. >>> also in the nation's capitol now, take a look. live on the senate floor where senator and presidential candidate rand paul has been speaking for hours against the government's bulk collection of phone records allowed under the patriot act. paul and other senators including some democrats plan to control debates throughout the night which could delay action on a vital trade bill. in 2013, paul filibustered for nearly 13 hours on the issue of drone strikes. >>> tonight, the feds have made hundreds of arrests in a major crackdown on the illegal distribution of powerful prescription painkillers. surprise raids on doctors and pharmacies in several states being called the largest pill bust in dea history. nbc's mark potter was there for one of the takedowns. >> reporter: the raids began with a convoy of dea agents and local police surrounding an office building in little rock, arkansas. their target -- the k.j. medical center, which agents say profited by illegally supplying drug addicts with prescriptions for pain pills. almost all tho

here's nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: it happened at 9:30 p.m. thursday. a commuter flight crew flying out of new york's jfk airport. >> there's somebody out just to the left side of the airplane here. they are shining green lasers. it's flashed us a couple of times. >> reporter: a few minutes later, it was an american airlines flight headed to l.a. >> looks like it was in a neighborhood in that area. we got struck about three or four times. >> reporter: and then delta flights to buffalo and boston -- >> delta 2292, left side or right side of the aircraft? we actually have a police helicopter on the ground underneath you right now. left side or right side? >> i'm not looking down at it. but it's lighting up the inside of the windshield here from the left side. >> reporter: in all, at least four to six flights hit in just a few hours. >> he's aiming it right at me right now. he's directly south of me about one mile. >> reporter: nationwide, the faa says lasers are targeting planes roughly 12 times each day. in florida, a police helicopter was lit up leading

tom costello has more on the latest of the investigation. >> the damaged train cars sit in a delaware yard while repair crews finish the job of rebuilding the track. investigators are tofocusing on a chain of e venltds that caused the accident. >> we're looking at three main do mains. we're looking at the human, machine and the environment. all three of those things are still on the table, the human is brandon bostian who told investigators he doesn't remember what happened right before it crashed. the question is whether projectiles hit the train as well as two other trains just before the accident. the ntsb says the bostian never radioed he had been hit by anything. along this entire stretch there's no shortage of rocks and concrete and a low fence line making it easy for somebody who might want to take aim. residents say it's a common sport for kids. >> glass and big rocks, balls ice, snowballs. just anything that you can think of to throw, it's been thrown. >> reporter: it's not a new problem. "the new york times" carried a story in 1905 of teddy roosevelt's train being hit on the

here's tom costello. >> reporter: if you have flown at all over the past several years there's a good chance you have gone surfing at 30,000 feet. you may have assumed that the plane's wi-fi is safe and secure, but is it really? sophos security chief james line says treat it like any other public wi-fi. >> it doesn't matter if they're encrypted or not. when you connect to them you're handing over your destiny of the internet connection to some unknown stranger. >> reporter: because that airline wi-fi is usually being offered by a third party through which anyone can gain access to your phone or computer. even someone sitting next to you. >> this is the first screen i noticed that something was out of the ordinary. >> reporter: it was a red alert like this one that greeted shawn murphy on a recent flight, his computer warning him the plane's wi-fi connection wasn't secure. >> if i were to access my e-mail or if i were to access pictures, they would have gotten all that information. they would have gotten my user name and password potentially and then the data coming back from there. >>

joining me now, nbc news correspondent tom costello. tom, the engineer has been identified, what do we know about him? >> 32 years old, he's been an engineer for five years with amtrak, and we would expect that if this investigation is going down two different tracks, he is -- he could potentially be facing serious questions from the ntsb, but also potentially from police. so these are very serious -- this is a very serious set of circumstances he finds himself in now. with the ntsb saying the train was traveling at 106 miles per hour as it entered into that curve. the question now is why? we don't know why. was it a human error involving the engineer, or was it a mechanical problem? and we cannot rule any of that out. the ntsb will hasten to add that. there's been a tremendous amount of effort today spent on -- really on the ground. the effort has been trying to look at exactly what might be happening with the train cars. might there be any victims under the train cars, in addition to that, trying to isolate and find all of those indivi

nbc's tom costello has this report. >> reporter: it was in hyperconnected, hyperpaced las vegas that we met up with sophos global cyber security expert. >> tom took a self and seconds later i have it. >> reporter: hacked into my phone and was tracking me down the vegas strip. >> i've got him right here on the street. >> reporter: hey, max, it's tom. listening to my phone conversations. >> download all of tom's contacts and a copy of all the calls that he's made. >> reporter: watching me surf the web and even hacking into the phone's microphone to hear me order a burger at mcdonald's. >> i've decided. can i get a small cheeseburger. >> reporter: for a determined hacker it's not that hard if they can convince you to download their software. >> we can send you a text message or link maybe telling you you've won a fantastic prize. >> reporter: to prove it he had me click on a text message. >> are you four compromised. >> reporter: just like that. >> juste like that. >> reporter: and android phones are more prone to hacking because anyone can publish an app for android. google which owns a

nbc's tom costello takes a look. >> reporter: if the mayweather/pacquiao match didn't quite live up to its billing, it may have touched off a different fight of the century in cyberspace. while pay-per-view customers paid $100 each to view the fight, at least 66 people live streamed it over periscope, for thousands, perhaps more to watch illegally for free. the ceo of twitter, periscope's parent company, declared periscope was the real winner. at any moment, periscope offers a smorgasbord of live feeds to choose from, public and private moments. a concert in london, a family at a petting zoo, a man playing piano at home. ♪ from the mundane to the scandalous, it's now possible to live stream to a global audience, but that opens up a world of privacy and legal issues. live streaming movies, tv shows or pay-per-view events, very often a copyright violation. >> the fact is it takes money to create content, it takes money to produce a fight, a major live event like that. you can expect that people will want to protect the exclusive agreements they have with broadcast companies. >> reporter:

we get details from tom costello. >> reporter: they're some of the most popular suvs on the market.ritical crash test. it replicates what happens when the front corner of the vehicle hits a pole tree or car. missing the front structure of the vehicle that might otherwise protect the people inside. the kind of serious accident that means firefighters must cut victims out of the car. 25% of car accident injuries occur in just this type of accident. >> we have lower leg injuries femur fractures, hip injuries. sometimes, we'll have internal injuries. >> it's pretty serious stuff? >> yes. >> the good news. three of the seven suvs tested earned a good or acceptable rating. the ford flex the jeep wrangler four door and the nissan murano. >> the occupant compartment held up well. >> seven received poor scores the santa fe cherokee durango and dodge journey. >> the structure collapsed. moving the driver air bag out of the path of the driver's head. >> hyundai and jeep chrysler tell nbc news they meet or exceed government standards. tom costello nbc news washington. >>> when we come back a ne

this is tom costello. criminal experts say dna technology has come a long way since the o.j. simpson trial in 1995. today, they can get a match from a sample as smalls a fingernail or smaller. at the forensics lab in maryland they test 2000 samples and dna has a long shelf life. >> it could last for a very long time z are we talking days, weeks, weeks months. >> a criminal can leave dna evidence at a crime scene without knowing it. skin cells on a gas stain, saliva sells on a wine bolt blood, saliva and other bodily fluids. they recovered dna on a pizza crust to identify the suspect. >> when you take a sip of something or you bite something, you are leaving saliva and your dna on that sample. typically, there will be a lot of dna in that. >> all they need is a sample that would fit on the end of the cotton swab. the chances that two people would share the same dna, 1 in several billion. the national dna database contains more than 11.6 million dna profiles from convicted felons and another 2 million from suspects that have been arrested. when dna is identified it is often ent

tom costello with what you need to know to stay safe on the road. >> reporter: the size of the recall is stunning. nearly 34 million vehicles nationwide involved 11 different automakers. one out of every cars on the road. after five months of insisting its airbag inflaters are not defective, the takata corporation now admits that's not true. >> takata has agreed to declare that airbag inflaters are defective. it's recalling these airbags and it's nationwide. >> five people in the u.s. have been killed by defective airbags including 18-year-old ashley parham who died after a minor fender-bender when it exploded. >> i literally got there in seconds and watch an 18-year-old girl who had her whole life in front of her die in that vehicle. >> others like randy brewer lost an eye. >> it makes me angry. angry this has been an ongoing problem and it's still going on now. this is something that should have been fixed years ago. >> they believe airbags most dangerous in extremely humid climates. moisture can lead to chemical reaction causing the inflater to explode. >> to find out if you're cal

back to you eun. >> tom costello, thank you.be sure to check out his full report on the "today" show. >>> today, a new panel will look at virginia's alcoholic beverage control department's law enforcement activities. governor governor terry mcauliffe created this panel after the controversial arrest of a student in march. captured holding down martese johnson. johnson received the severe cut on his forehead. mcauliffe has ordered a state police investigation and retraining of abc agents. >>> we are staying on top of a developing story in the district at 6:49. police look into the deadly shooting in southeast. this happened on ridge road near "c" street. news4's megan mcgrath has the latest. >> reporter: well, aaron, you can see behind me that police are still limiting the ability to bet to the area. we have got police tape cordoning off this parking lot as well as this grassy areas. officers still on the scene trying to piece together what happened and who pulled the trigger. it was after midnight when the 911 call came in for a

meanwhile, nbc's tom costello breaks down what to do step by step. >> reporter: to find out if your car is on the expanded recall list locate your vehicle identification number underneath your wipers. then go to safercar.gov go to "search for recalls" then "recalls by vin." type in the vin number and whatever recalls are affecting your car, including the air bag recall should pop up. >> with if your car is affected it could be months before you can get it fixed. takata says it doesn't have the resources to make tens of millions of new air bags to put in those cars. some car companies like honda are turning to other companies for replacement parts. investigators also say the current replacement parts could also be defective, meaning some of you may need to have your car repaired a second time. melissa? >>> check this out. a large tornado barbara, striking north texas. this video shows the twister just west of fort worth. this morning, people are cleaning up the mess left behind. the twister ripped off roofs causing damage to several buildings. the police headquarters building were also h

tom costello has this report. >> it was hyperconnected hyperpaced las vegas, that we met up with james lyne. within a few minutes and a few clicks. >> tom took a selfie and minutes later i got it. >> he was tracking me down the vegas strip. >> i got him, he's right here -- >> we've downloaded all of tom's contacts and a copy of all the calls he's made. >> hacking into the phone's microphone to hear me order a burger at mcdonald's. it's not that hard if they can convince you to download their malicious software. >> we could send you a text message or e-mail that contains a link. >> to prove it james had me click on a text message. >> you are now compromised. >> just like that? >> just like that. >> security experts say android phones are more prone to hacking, because anyone can publish an app for android. security is improving each month. to ensure you don't download a hacker's app, google's advice is to only download apps from google play. don't download apps from sites you don't trust. if you get a google warning about an app, don't install it the stakes could be very high. >> if som

tom costello nbc news washington. >>> there's more to share with you about all this. how hackers are targeting your medical records in doctors offices and hospitals. a stunning look at how vulnerable they are. >>> coming up next tonight, new developments in a shocking scene caught on camera. children in a bounce house blown away in congratulations. you're down with crestor. yes! when diet and exercise aren't enough, adding crestor lowers bad cholesterol up to 55%. crestor is not for people with liver disease or women who are nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant. tell your doctor all medicines you take. call your doctor if you have muscle pain or weakness, feel unusually tired have loss of appetite, upper belly pain, dark urine or yellowing of skin or eyes. these could be signs of serious side effects. i'm down with crestor! make your move. ask your doctor about crestor. we all enter this world with a shout and we see no reason to stop. so cvs health is creating industry-leading programs and tools that help people stay on medicines as their doctors prescribed. it

tom costello is outside the mall -- you may have heard his voice, asking questions of the mayor. we hope to speak with him shortly. in the meantime let's take a short break. when tom gets settled, we'll have him recap that which the mayor said and take you here to hear the governor. hey! have an awesome vacation everyone! thank you so much! you're so sweet. yummy! key lime pie at 90 calories. it is so good for not giving in. this kid makes stains like crazy so we got our new he washing machine but it took forever turns out it wasn't the machine, it was our detergent. so we switched to tide turbo clean. now we get way cleaner clothes way faster he turbo clean. 6x the cleaning power in ½ the time constipated? .yea dulcolax tablets can cause cramps but not phillips. it has magnesium and works more naturally than stimulant laxatives. for gentle cramp free relief of occasional constipation that works! mmm mmm live the regular life. >>> approaching 35 passed the -- past the hour. that is stephanie rawlings-blake outside the mondawmin mall thanking the community, particularly vendors ins

joining us now is tom costello who's in philly, thanks for being with us. >> the mayor really kind ofnged his tune over the last 90 minutes or so, earlier this evening, he said the engineer had to be an idiot, he said the behavior was very risky and completely inappropriate. he really laid it down. he blasted the engineer, and then i witnessed what happened, what happened was the ntsb board member pulled him aside and said, you can't go down this road yet, you cannot be already judging the engineer, you can't be -- the entire scene of the judicial process here, we don't know if this engineer had a medical issue or there was something else going on that may have contributed to the crash. we don't know if there's a mechanical issue. if the public at large wants to draw conclusions, that's up to the public at large. the ntsb simply gathers information, releases fak you'll information as it has it, but then ultimately it goes down this very methodical and scientific path that could take weeks, months or in some cases even more than a year, there's a very famous case about 18 to 20 years a

>> tom costello thank you. >>> news4 at 5:00 starts now with jim and wendy. >>> right now at 5:00.ce in mourning. >> today is a sad day. >> a 25-year veteran, a father of three, lost in the lien of duty. >> as the building collapsed. >>> what we're learning about that family's heart breaking history. >>> next thing i know we're looking up and it is firing roaring. >> live team coverage begins now. >>> we started with lightning, downpours. >> today's heat is helping fuel those thunderstorms. doug kammerer is tracking it all for us. >> you talk about the hail. we are seeing half dollar and even golf ball size hail. that's some of the biggest that you see around this area. you can see the storms as they moved through region and continuing to develop. fairfax county was getting crushed earlier. now those same storms put out a boundary that is hitting parts of fauquier county and loudoun county. severe thunderstorm warnings in effect until 5:15 for clark county fauquier county. two different storms. this storm around the marshall area. this is the strongest storm we've halfway. we want

tom costello is in philadelphia. you've been all over this story all week.ve we learned today about the train and the conditions leading into that acceleration and the braking and the fact he was going twice as fast as would have been expected going into the curve. >> reporter: yeah, couple of things. first of all, one headline is nbc news has learned they are attempting to interview the engineer today. that's the plan. we'll see if that comes to as the day wears on. you talk about the speed. they mentioned in the minute leading up to this crash it was getting faster and faster. 16 seconds before derailment, he was at 100 miles per hour and still accelerating. the question becomes well why? was he simply not paying attention to speed? ntsb indicated so far when they've done checks of the tracks and of the train itself and of the switches, everything seems to have been operating normally. no anomalies is what they say. then you look at was he distracted? the attorney representing him said no, he had his cell phone turned off in a bag. the philadelphia police

tom costello has more on the man at the helm of the train when it flew off those tracks. >> reporter: for the first time since tuesday's derailment ntsb investigators have heard from a man at the center of the investigation. brandon bostian. >> he has no reckollection of anything past that. he reported no illness or fatigue throughout the day. >> reporter: just moments before the crash, a acceptsepta train said it was hit by a projectile. >> we have seen damage to he left-hand lower portion of the amtrak windshield. that we have asked the fbi to come in and look at for us. >> reporter: the heavily used northeast corridor snakes through dense neighborhoods. for trains heading north, the track curves right. a 65 mile-per-hour speed limit. then accelerates for 80 miles per hour for a mile and a half before breaking to 50 for a curve. it went into the curve at 106 miles per hour. fritz elder worked the line for over 20 years. >> the equipment we have is designed to accelerate quickly. it can quickly get away from you. >> reporter: alarms go off every few seconds requiring them to hit a bu

tom costello is in sky force 10. tom, give us some context and some insight of what your a seeing. >> reporter: well, it's absolutely horrific. you know when you see it from the air, it is just astonishing the damage that you are seeing on television of course. when you see it firsthand, it's really just an amazing scene. listen, the ntsb is going to have its hands full in conjunction with federal railroad authorities. they have a lot to look at here. they're going to be as you know downloading the data from the black boxes looking at exactly all of the train's data as it relates to speed. speed performance as it relates to how it was -- how fast it was moving through that corner. they're also going to be looking at the performance of the individuals, the conductor, if you will also the engineer. was there any evidence of anybody perhaps texting or perhaps drinking or -- they'll do a full toxicology report on everybody. they'll do a fine forensic analysis of all the train pieces if you will. they'll try to put it all

nbc's tom costello is in philadelphia where we just saw the first amtrak train go through. tom, good morning to you. >> reporter: and a good morning to you, aaron. in fact, 750,000 people ride the northeast corridor every single day. critical part of the nation's infrastructure. and so getting it back up and running of course was a up to priority for amtrak. they did it this morning a day ahead of schedule. first train left new york southbound at about 5:30 a.m. the northbound train out of philly leaving here late 5:53 a.m. it was supposed to leave, and it left at 6:09 a.m. we talked to the passengers they said they weren't concerned at all. they feel confident about amtrak and the safety upgrades. the ceo of amtrak telling me yesterday they take this extremely seriously and they have already put in place the upgrades ordered by the federal railroad administration including essentially automatic train control. that's a speed controlled technology that's now in effect. that's not positive train control, but it's another type of control that they have. and putting restrictions

tom costello thank you so much for your time. we're, of course waiting an ntsb news conference that will happen at 5:00 about 30 minutes from now. we hope to glean more information then. reporting live in port richmond at the site of this deadly amtrak train derailment. nbc 10 news. >> thank you. >> we'll check that with you throughout the afternoon. in the meantime joe biden had this to say about the deadly derailment. amtrak is like a second family to me as it is for so many other passengers. for my entire career i've made that trip from wilmington to washington and back. shortly after the derailment happened, the nbc 10 investigators started digging into records about railroad accidents. >> they found pennsylvania has more than its share. nbc 10 investigative reporter dug through federal railroad records to find this trend. >> those records point to an upward trend for all rail lines and amtrak. it is not exception. >> when it comes to related railway accidents, equipment failure and track deterioration are often to blame. rec

number to find out if you're involved. >> tom costello thank you. >>> this just in to the live desk. the search for missing malaysian airlines flight 370 is widening. investigators are looking at a larger area now of the indian ocean floor. they're now saying if they don't find the jet there, they just don't know where else to look. the expanded zone covers 46,000 square miles, the size of pennsylvania. the jet mysteriously disappeared in march of last year en route from kuala lumpur to beijing. back to you, aaron. >>> 6:47 right now. we are learning more about a mansion murder mystery here in the district. a couple and their housekeeper were beaten and stabbed in the home not far from the vice president's house. the couple's 10-year-old son was so badly burned they don't know how he died. they tried to see the surveillance video at that home, but the security cameras were disarmed. the four people were found dead on thursday at that home along woodland drive. >>> today aill hear a plea case involving the son of the late marion barry. he reached a plea days before his trial on assaul

. >> tom costello following developments from our washington bureau. can we call this a rehearsal? explain of change in altitude? >> i don't think we have enough information. here's why. just dialing different altitudes into the flight management system without hitting engage just dialing around 100 feet and 40,000 feet that would be recorded on the flight data recorder system. but if you'll notice this line and that's important, look at the graph. the blue line represents the irregular commands that the erratic altitudes in the flight computers, 100 feet up to 49,000 feet and the red line represents the altitude. that means that despite the erratic dialing in and out of different altitudes, the plane maintained a normal descent down to barcelona which would suggest that either he never hit engage and in other words never committed the plane to 100 feet altitude or that the plane was happening with such brief frequency that the plane was maintaining its normal flight and normal descent down to barcelona as the flight was planned. i'm not sure that we can say that he was really at t

nbc's tom costello has more at the helm of the train when it flew off the track. >> reporter: for the first time since tuesday's derailment ntsb investigators have to spoke to the engineer brandon bostian. who says the last thing he recalls is ringing his bell as he left the north philly train station. >> he has no recollection past that. he reported no fatigue or illness throughout the day. >> reporter: moments before the crash, another regional septa train was hit by a projectile. they've now seen something suspicious on train 188's wind cheeld. >> we have seen damage to the left-hand lower portion of the amtrak windshield. that we have asked the fbi to come in and look at for us. >> reporter: for trains heading north from philadelphia station, the track curves right a 65 miles per hour speed limit. then accelerates for a mile and a half before braking to 50 on a sharp left curve. on tuesday the train went into the curve at 106 miles per hour. fritz elder worked the line for 25 years. >> the equipment we have is designed to accelerate quickly. it can quickly get away from you. >> to

nbc's tom costello is in philadelphia for us once again. tom, good evening to you. >> reporter: first train leaves at 5:53 tomorrow. amtrak has been working round the clock to restart the service on this critical northeast corridor. five days since amtrak went off the rails, repair crews have finished the job of rebuilding the track. investigators are focusing on the chain of events that might have caused such a horrific accident and the ntsb says nothing has been ruled in or out. >> we're looking at three main domains, we're looking at the human, the machine and the environment. and all three of those things are still on the table. >> the human is engineer brandon bostian who told investigators he doesn't remember what happened jus before his speeding train crashed. the environment question includes whether projectiles hit the train just before the accident. the ntsb now says engineer bostian never radioed that he had been hit. the fbi is looking at the smash mark on three trains. amtrak says its trains are hit by projectiles all of the tim

joining me now by phone from philadelphia, nbc news correspondent, tom costello. 've got to say, i was watching that press conference today, kind of amazed. i mean it felt like a massive plot twist in this investigation. what do you make of it? >> well a bit of a bombshell. that said, you know we did know, we had heard several days ago, that there was this regional train that had been hit by a rock or something, a projectile of some sort but we thought that was an isolated event, and it still may be. what's happened here the ntsb said, we looked at the windshield from the locomotive on train 188 the train that derailed, and we see something that we want the fbi to take a look at. is it damage from the derailment or is it damage from something that occurred before the derailment? a projectile of some sort? that's why they're bringing them in. but, you know, the question is, you've still got a question that will accelerating dramatically over the course of the full minutes before the derailment. 17 seconds prior to the crash, it was exceeding 100 miles per hour. what

nbc tom costello is on the platform in trenton, new jersey. he just road the train from philadelphia and joins me now by phone. we obviously saw philadelphia mayor nutter there reassuring passengers telling the train is very safe. what was the psyche of passengers on the ride you took from new york? >> caller: everybody here is very confident at least as we talk to people on the tracks and train. very confident in the safety of amtrak. as we went through the curve where train 188 derailed, we slowed down to 45 -- i think slower than 45 miles per hour. the new rules that amtrak has now adopted stating you have to drop from original speed limit 50. you've got to drop down to 45 in the s curve. train 88 last week was traveling excess of 100 as it hit the curve. today we went through the period where the train derailed. there were crews off to the sides monitoring train traffic. we really slowed down. i would say overall, people were calm anxious and back up and running. this northeast corridor serves 750,000 a day, 40,000 amtrak. it's a critical

come tom costello is here with more. why was the fbi brought in? >> reporter: alex good morning.ow one other train and maybe two other trains traveling through the area at about the same time were hit by projectiles. so the question this morning was the engineer on amtrak train 188 who by the way we know suffered a head injury and was treated for that after the accident was he hit by a projectile and incapacitated just as the train was speeding up? this morning new questions about the chain of events tuesday night. minutes before amtrak train 188's derailment, a pennsylvania regional septa train reported it had been hit by a rock or shot at damaging the front windshield. on friday the ntsb said it had also found something unusual on the windshield of the derailed amtrak train. >> we have seen damage to the left-hand lower portion of the amtrak windshield. that we have asked the fbi to come in and look at for us. >> reporter: was amtrak 188 also hit with a projectile before it crashed? that's what an assistant conductor told investigators she thought she heard engineer brandon bos

nbc's tom costello has late details. tom? >> reporter: hi, lester. good evening. the focus remains on this engineer, but also on that other train that came through this north philadelphia area just before train 188 did. and that train was hit by a projectile. the question is whether was train 188 also hit by something? for the first time since tuesday's derailment, ntsb investigators have heard from the man at the center of the investigation, 32-year-old engineer brandon bostion, who said the last thing he recalls is ringing his bell as he left the north philly train station. >> he has no recollection of anything past that. also, he reported no fatigue throughout the day, or any illness throughout the day. >> reporter: just moments before tuesday's crash, another regional septa train was hit by a projectile, shattering its windshield. and ntsb investigators say they've seen something suspicious on train 188's windshield. >> we have seen damage to the left-hand lower portion of the amtrak windshield that we have asked the fbi to come in and look at for us. >> repor

. >>> let's go right now for latest breaking -- let's bring in tom costello, my colleague. tom, give us a sense of this dimension of this, and how with are we going to find out and how soon what has happened. what are we going to find out later? >> i think we should be very aware that the ntsb is a very deliberate process. they will take weeks, months and maybe even a year or more before they come up with a final determination of what happened. all we really know tonight is that this engineer was running the train at 106 miles per hour as he entered that curve that is more than double the posted speed limit. and then he slammed on the brakes, got it down to 103, 102 miles per hour and then it's too late. the train is going off the tracks. we don't know why the train is traveling that fast. was he asleep at the switch? was he not paying attention? was he incapacitated in some way? was there a mechanical issue of some sort? he, we are told, hasn't talked to ntsb investigators. police sources told us he hasn't talked to them either. and we're also told he has contacted a lawyer

>> tom costello thank you. jim hall joins us now. as you heard tom's reporting, the fbi now involved as we're hearing about this fracture pattern on the left-hand side of the front window. does that indicate to you that the source came from someone targeting in train and now that the fbi is involved are we looking at completely a criminal investigation? >> well in any case none of that negates a need for a positive train control system which is designed to override any type of human error regardless of what the human error is. >> when we talk about human error in this and we're still waiting to find out exactly what happened behind the controls of this locomotive bostian has been very open with investigators. hearing from this assistant engineer she claims she heard over the radio bostian report something striking. how important is it that the event recorders may have capture ed this radio transmissions and fbi can check. >> hopefully all of that will be developed as part of the investigation and with the fbi's forensic ability they'l

. >> joining us live from baltimore, nbc news correspondent tom costello. tom, walk us through the events of the past weekend starting with the arrests on friday. >> yeah i think there is a real sense here that this city, that baltimore has in fact turned the corner after the riots that we stau a week ago and more across all of baltimore. over the weekend, we saw hundreds even thousands of peaceful flon straet tors yet again out on the street. this was really almost a carnival atmosphere at times, but at the same time, demonstrators, protesters insisting that they are going to hold the city and the police department accountable for freddie gray's death. since the protests turned violent more than a week ago, the police department reports 486 people have been arrested 200 businesses lost and the tragedy there is that half of them are minority owned and make that the vast majority of them are minority owned and the vast majority don't have insurance. in addition the police department reporting 113 officers were injured over the course of the past week. but thi