The Amtrak Crash: Why The FBI Lied And Why It Is No Freak Accident Lending The Possibility Of A Terror Attack

By Walid Shoebat

When the tragic Amtrak crash happened, initially, the media and the FBI reported that foul play or terrorism was ruled out. When this misinformation came out on the 13th of this month, Shoebat.com reported on the same day, that such reports are not likely accurate, and that foul play or terrorism cannot be ruled out:

Just before Tuesday’s deadly Amtrak derailment, at about 9:25 p.m, Tuesday, SEPTA’s northbound Train 769, en route to Trenton on tracks on the Northeast Corridor beside the Amtrak rails, was struck by “an unknown projectile” that broke the engineer’s window, SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams said.

Strange that about three minutes later and four miles away, near Frankford Junction, Amtrak’s northbound Train 188 derailed on the Northeast Corridor tracks, killing at least six and injuring scores.

Two trains, separate incidents within three minutes from each other and both incidents caused damage on the engineer’s window (one confirmed due to a projectile) which now some photos surfaced of the Amtrak crash also showing signs of engineer’s window shatter. Whether this is another projectile or was caused by the crash is unknown, but what is known is that both incidents were either coordinated around the same time with damage to the engineer’s window. Were these simply due to accidents? One is not. But this new revelation begins to lessen the possibility that chance was involved and that foul play becomes a possibility.

Shoebat.com stated this 5 days before the news came out confirming our suspicion. But this was not only of two incidents, but three confirmed “projectile story”. It then becomes probable that what we are dealing with is a coordinated attack:

The FBI is looking into whether there is any link between three different trains that were all apparently hit by objects just a few miles apart, within a few minutes, the night of the deadly Amtrak derailment.

Prior to these reports, Shoebat.com even provided photos of the Amtrak train showing that a projectile also have hit the derailed Amtrak train:

Tweeted photos of the derailed Amtrak

Photo of the derailed Amtrak Train 188

Photo of the derailed Amtrak Train 188. Notice the concentric circles due to projectiles.

The SEPTA incident which is a confirmed projectile also shows a similar concentric window shatter, a confirmed “projectile”:

The third train was “another Amtrak train, a southbound Acela train that was apparently hit in a passenger window” as ABC reported. The SEPTA “train personnel believed someone had shot at them” which “Philadelphia transit police dispatchers can be heard on scanner audio from Tuesday night, warning that a commuter train may have been shot at.”

Amtrak and SEPTA windows with apparent holes and a concentrated shatter due to projectile

Such concentrated shatter holes are not easily formed by flying debris. Train driver windows are 223 Type 1 standard windows which have “minimum requirements for glazing materials in order to protect railroad employees and railroad passengers from injury as a result of objects striking the windows of locomotives”.

The driver’s window are not the same as the side windows of passenger trains which must meet Type II standards. According to federal standards, the driver windows need to have glazing that will withstand a 40 grain .22 caliber bullet travelling at 960 feet per second, or a 24 lb cinderblock travelling at 44 feet per second.

debris are unlikely to have caused such damage. From the Amtrak driver photo one can see what seems like a possible bullet size hole which may rule out that such “projectile” was a rock.

One could argue that the derailment shattered the Amtrak train’s windshield, but this was rejected by Robert L. Sumwalt, the safety board official who is leading the investigation said “there were concentric circles on the lower left corner of the glass.” Concentrated circles are not caused by a crash trauma, but by a projectile.

The NTSB said that the second Amtrak train (third incident) — this one headed south — that had a window shattered in the same area around the same time. NBC reported that “on southbound Amtrak Acela 2173 and nearing the Philadelphia 30th Street Station around 9:20 p.m. when he was jolted by the sound of an object hitting and shattering the window of his train car.”

Window damage from Amtrak Acela 2173

The ‘projectile’ be it a “rock” or a “bullet” does not eliminate an act of terrorism and three trains being hit at the same time with such projectiles minimizes the possibility of a mere “accident”. Rocks, as some might laugh this off, are used by desperate terrorists, and if in doubt try living in Israel.

As far as the crash, indeed it is likely to have been caused by speeding. But such a scenario as a projectile hitting the engineer’s window could easily distract the engineer at the worst time while the conductor notices the curve when it was too late and applies the brakes sending the train off the tracks. The other scenario was that the engineer fell forward against the throttle, and then reacted too late.

Such scenario cannot be ruled out. Mark Rosenker, a former N.T.S.B. chairman, said the impact from a thrown object could have affected the engineer and led to the crash.

“He could have been startled to a point of distraction to lose situational awareness and forget that he was supposed to slow down instead of accelerating,” Mr. Rosenker said in an interview Friday.

Karl Edler, a retired engineer who drove the line hundreds of times, said an impact could help explain the wreck. When a train pulls out of the North Philadelphia station, the engineer usually twists the throttle “up to notch eight, which is engineer-speak for wide open,” he said.

It is about three miles to the curve where Amtrak 188 derailed.

“Usually, you just leave the throttle open until you get up to 80 miles per hour, then put on the brake for the curve,” he said. “Seems reasonable that something happened right about that time he would have started slowing down that kept him from taking the throttle off. He was startled by the impact or whatever. And by the time he realized it, it was too late.”

While the Amtrak conductor does not have recollection (perhaps due to memory loss), The New York Times reported that “Robert L. Sumwalt, the safety board official who is leading the investigation, said an assistant conductor had reported that she believed she heard a radio transmission in which an engineer on a regional line said his train had been struck by a projectile and the engineer on the Amtrak train replied that his had been struck, too.” But this report was rejected later as no such transmission was heard from the recordings. This would mean that the engineer on the crashed train never reported a projectile hitting his window, even though the evidence shows an impact that could only be caused by a projectile.

While the possibilities of an attack of some sort is high, it being a terror attack, begs the question: why has no terrorist group made any claims? Usually terrorist groups, especially ISIS sympathizers, take pride in such a successful mission as derailing an American train.

Railroads have been the target of terrorists in the past. The FBI on Friday announced a $310,000 reward for information that would lead to the arrests of people responsible for derailing an Amtrak train in Palo Verde, Arizona in October 1995. There were 258 passengers on board, and the crash caused the death of Amtrak employee Mitchell Bates. The $310,000 reward was being provided by the FBI, Amtrak, and the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. Notes signed “Sons of Gestapo” were found along the site, and authorities at the time discovered railroad spikes had been removed prior to the crash. There has been no information about who the Sons of Gestapo were in two decades.

Yet there is no such claim from anyone regarding this latest incident. So the mystery thickens, but what is becoming certain is that foul play is a likely possibility, as we stated prior to the news just from a simple observation of the windows. The chances of more than one incident around roughly the same time, sets a higher probability for an attack and foul play rather than the media’s initial “accident” claim and the FBI’s “no terrorism” claim. This becomes especially concerning when we have three incidents, not one.

While the FBI ruled out terrorism, the question that begs an answer is: how could the FBI rule out such a scenario before the investigation is completed? This makes zero sense. This lends another possibility for the FBI’s initial claim, that is, they did not want to alarm the public, lest all transportation systems comes to a screeching halt.

Wisdom says, its always code red, especially when they say its code orange, since code red is usually set after an attack and rarely just prior to an attack. Being somewhat paranoid when traveling is a healthy dose of reality.