Why the Amtrak train crash in Philadelphia is like a plane crash

The crash of Amtrak Northeast Regional Train 188 in Philadelphia, PA on May 12, 2015 involved an Amtrak passenger train, but in many ways this train crash was like a plane crash, specifically in the ways that the major US media outlets responded to the event. It is extremely rare for train crashes to generate intense media interest, but this kind of attention is routine for airline crashes. Upon closer review, the media response to the Amtrak crash is not so surprising.

Although it has only been a couple of days since the crash, the NTSB accident investigation team has revealed key details of the events that led to the crash. In short, it looks like the train was traveling just over 100 mph (161 kph), and derailed after entering a curve that had a 50 mph speed limit.

There were five crew members and about 240 passengers on board. Seven of those passengers were killed, and several dozen passengers and crew members were injured.

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NTSB Board Member Robert Sumwalt at crash site

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Amtrak accidents are common
While this accident has received the kind of attention usually given a major plane crash (for example, continuous coverage from major news networks that includes having news anchors at the crash site), Amtrak accidents are actually quite common. According to the Federal Railroad Administration, over the last decade, Amtrak has been involved with accidents and incidents that have resulted in over 1,000 deaths.

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(Click to enlarge)

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In the last three years, Amtrak has been involved in over 50 accidents per year, with 21 in the first two months of 2015.

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Why this crash stands out
The circumstances around the Philadelphia crash that have led to an intense amount of media attention include where it happened, who was on the train, and perhaps more importantly, who is likely to travel by train on that route.

The crash took place on not only the most heavily traveled route in the Amtrak system, with over 12 million riders in 2011, it is also a route that connects New York City with Washington, DC, two metropolitan areas where many members of the US financial, political, and media elite live and work.

Many of the elite members of US society, even if they don't live or work in New York or Washington, have either traveled on that route on many occasions, or know friends, colleagues, or family members who do. A quick review of some of those killed in the crash can give you an insight into the kinds of people who regularly travel on this route. The dead include:

• A tech company CEO
• A software architect for a major news media organization
• A US Naval Academy midshipman
• A university dean
• A senior vice president of a Fortune 100 company

Given the ongoing media coverage, it is very likely that the most influential business, political, and media decision makers throughout the US are not only keenly aware of the accident, but can also imagine circumstances where they could have been on that train that night. If it had been a jet airliner traveling between major cities in the northeast US, the airliner's passenger list would have likely reflected the profile of the people on that Amtrak train.

These are the reasons why the traveling public, especially the more influential members of the traveling public, may feel about this train crash the same way they would perceive a plane crash, as something that could happen to them.

Additional resources
Amtrak Northeast Corridor overview 2011

Graphics:
Federal Railroad Administration
National Transportation Safety Board

Two Recent Security Related Incidents in Philadelphia

There have been two noteworthy security events in Philadelphia this month, one of which was due to extremely poor decision making by a TSA employee, and the second involving a simple cultural misunderstanding.

A recent article from the Philadelphia Inquirer described a January 5th event where a TSA employee questioned a passenger about a small plastic bag of white powder that he pulled out of her carry-on bag. The passenger, a college student flying that day from Philadelphia to Detroit, was stunned since she had no idea where the small bag of white powder came from and how it got into her carry-on. After a few seconds of confusion, she found out where the bag came from and how it got into her carry-on. The person responsible for it was the same TSA employee who confronted her.

While the TSA employee apparently thought it was a big joke, the passenger had an entirely different opinion. The Detroit Free Press reported that she asked to speak with the airport’s security director and filed a complaint, and that two days later the airport notified her about disciplinary action against the employee.

The disciplinary action didn't stop at there. Ann Davis, speaking on behalf of the TSA wrote that “TSA viewed this behavior to be completely inappropriate and unprofessional.” The TSA's blog site reported that the employee was no longer employed by TSA as of January 21st.

The passenger described her ordeal in detail in an article in the Michigan Daily newspaper. This story may not end here. The Inquirer also reports that the father of the passenger involved in this incident is a Philadelphia litigator.

Prayer Device Leads to Security Diversion
What started as an attempt to pray on an aircraft turned into a security alert that included an aircraft diversion and two innocent teenagers hauled away in handcuffs.

On January 21st, US Airways Express Flight 3079 was en route from New York's LaGuardia Airport to Louisville, KY when it was diverted to Philadelphia after a flight attendant saw a young passenger strapping a device to his wrist and head. The flight attendant asked the passenger what he was doing, and he responded that he was praying. The flight attendant, who apparently was unfamiliar with this type of prayer. She described what she saw to the flight crew, and the flight crew decided to divert to Philadelphia, where the aircraft was met by police and other security officials.


It turns out that there was no bomb and in fact no threat to the aircraft. The passenger was using a tefillin, which are leather boxes containing scriptures that observant Jewish men wear on their foreheads and arm and fingers during obligatory weekday morning prayers. Typically leather straps are used to secure the tefillin to the body.

What started as a misunderstanding about a totally innocent event ended up being a less than pleasant experience for two children on the flight. According to an article in the New York Times, police entered the aircraft with guns drawn and later both the boy who was using the tellifin his sister who was traveling with him were put in handcuffs and briefly detained before eventually being allowed to continue to their destination.

While it appears that neither the crew, the praying passenger, police, and other security officials all seem to have been acting in an appropriate manner, it is clear that this kind of misunderstanding could easily occur again. Perhaps the most sensible suggestion to come out of this event was made by the young passenger's rabbi, who suggested that in the future that he pray on the airplane, but fulfill the ritual by putting on the tellifin later.

Infomercial Celebrity Billy Mays Dies After Flight

Television infomercial celebrity Billy Mays died in his sleep less than a day after he was involved in a landing incident where he was struck in the head by one or more falling objects. US Airways Flight 1241, a 737-400, departed from Philadelphia, PA just after noon on June 27, 2009 on a nonstop flight to Tampa, FL.

The aircraft experienced a hard landing, which ruptured the two nose wheel tires. The aircraft remained on the runway and the 138 passengers and five crew members, none of whom at the time appeared to be seriously injured, were taken to the terminal. Billy Mays was interviewed by a reporter from WTVT television in Tampa shortly after the incident and stated that he had been hit on the head by something falling from the ceiling.

Billy Mays had returned to Tampa on Saturday in order to undergo hip surgery the following Monday. According to his family, he had no other significant medical conditions at the time of his death. Tampa police reported that Mays wasn't feeling well the evening of the landing incident, and he went to bed at about 10 pm. He was found dead by his wife at about 7:45 the following morning.
Listen to the 911 Call from the Home of Billy Mays (2:25)
Source: Tampa Fire Rescue

So far, a direct connection between the head strike on Billy Mays during the hard landing and his subsequent death has been neither ruled in or ruled out by local authorities. Although Mays reported that he was struck in the head, neither he or the Tampa police could confirm that he was struck by luggage. Local authorities will conduct an autopsy to determine the cause of death, and the results may be available before the end of June.

If the authorities determine that Mays's death was not connected to the landing incident, then the incident will be considered minor and would likely not end up in the online incident and accident databases of the FAA or NTSB. If the death is determined to be associated with the hard landing, then this would be considered a fatal accident by the NTSB, but would not likely result in a major investigation.

The most recent significant safety event for US Airways was the ditching of an A320 in the Hudson River last January. The last fatal crash for US Airways involved a regional aircraft in Charlotte, NC in January 2003. That crash killed both pilots and all 19 passengers. The most recent fatal event involving a 737-400 was a Garuda Indonesia Airways crash in 2007.

Dangers from falling luggage have long been recognized by the airline industry. In 1998, the Flight Safety Foundation published the results of a study that estimated that worldwide, there were about 10,000 injuries every year involving falling baggage. The same study looked at 397 cases at a major US airline where a person was struck by falling luggage, and 30 percent of those strikes resulted in bruises or lacerations.

For more information on how to protect yourself from threats from falling luggage due to hard landings and in-flight turbulence, please visit turbulence.airsafe.org.

Resources
Listen to the Podcast About This Event (3:00)
Plane Crashes and Significant Events for US Airways
Plane Crashes and Significant Events for the 737

Update 29 June 2009
Hillsborough County Medical Examiner Vernard Adams stated that preliminary results from the autopsy of Billy Mays indicates that he had hypertensive heart disease. He also said that Mays was taking the prescription painkillers Tramadol and hydrocodone for hip pain, and that pill counts indicate that Mays had been taking the correct amount of the drugs. Initial tests showed no evidence of head trauma. Hillsborough County includes the city of Tampa.