FBI probing whether doomed Amtrak train hit by object

The Amtrak train disaster in which 8 people were killed may have been caused by a gunshot or a rock hitting the train before it crashed last Wednesday, according to investigators. The FBI is examining what appears to be circular damage to the train’s windshield, although no projectile was found inside the locomotive. An unknown onject hitting the windshield may have panicked the driver into accelerating to double the speed limit on a curve and derailing the train as it traveled through Philadelphia. An assistant conductor aboard the train told investigators that she heard the Amtrak engineer talking over the radio with an engineer from a regional railroad just before the crash. He said his train had been hit by a rock or some other projectile in the same area.

Not long before the derailment, two passengers on a southbound Amtrak told The Philadelphia Inquirer that something shattered a window on their train as it passed through this area. They said Amtrak police boarded the train at 30th Street station in Philadelphia to document the incident. DEBKAfile: The New York-Washington DC Amtrak line routinely serves US administration officials, lawmakers and other commuters with business in the capital. An attack on one of these trains would also be a major breach of national security as well as a disaster.