Commuter train crashes into parked train, injuring dozens

A one-car commuter train crashed into a parked train at a suburban Philadelphia terminal early Tuesday, buckling the floors of both cars and injuring more than 30 passengers, authorities said.

None of the injuries was considered life-threatening, said Heather Redfern, a spokeswoman for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority.

"Some were considered walking wounded," she said.

In this frame from video, a person is pulled away from the scene of a train crash in Upper Darby, Pa., Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2017. A commuter train crashed into a parked train at the suburban Philadelphia terminal early Tuesday morning, injuring dozens of passengers, a transit spokeswoman said. (WPVI via AP)

The train operator, who was treated at a hospital and released midday, submitted samples for drug and alcohol tests, said Ruben Payan, lead investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board. He said the NTSB also had asked to interview the operator Wednesday, along with the operator of a train on adjacent tracks and transit supervisors.

The Norristown High Speed train crashed into the unoccupied train car at the 69th Street Terminal in Upper Darby around 12:15 a.m., tossing passengers from their seats.

"I heard the train going real fast ... like, super-fast," passenger Raymond Woodard told WPVI-TV Woodard. "And I looked up, and I saw that we're at 69th Street and said, 'Why are we going so fast?' And then we just hit the train. Boom! I fell out of my chair, glass from the window shattered, I hit my head. Everybody was on the floor."

Police tape blocks off a train track at the 69th Street Terminal in Upper Darby, Pa., after a train collision early Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2017, injuring dozens of passengers. A regional rail train crashed into a parked train at the suburban Philadelphia terminal, a regional rail spokeswoman said. (AP Photo/Anthony Izaguirre)

Neither train car derailed, and Payan said damage overall did not appear to be major. But he said investigators wouldn't know for sure until the two cars could be inspected in a shop.

He said it could take up to a year to produce a final report on the cause and safety recommendations.

"We haven't ruled anything out right now," Payan said, adding that video recovered from both cars will be reviewed.

The transit agency had put the number of injured at 42. But the NTSB said the total number of injured was 33 — 32 passengers and the train operator.

In this photo released via Twitter by the National Transportation Safety Board, NTSB investigator Rick Downs takes measurements at scene of a commuter rail accident Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2017, in Upper Darby, Pa. An inbound train crashed into the rear of the parked train, pictured, at the suburban Philadelphia terminal early Tuesday morning, injuring dozens of passengers and the train's operator. (National Transportation Safety Board via AP)

In February, four people were injured in a crash near the 69th Street Terminal involving three out-of-service commuter trains. At the time, SEPTA said one train rear-ended another on a loop where trains turn around to get back into service. Cars from that accident derailed and hit a third train on nearby tracks.

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) — A Douglas C-54 Skymaster airplane carrying two people crashed into the Tanana River near Fairbanks on Tuesday and burst into flames, authorities said. No survivors have been found.

The plane took off in the morning from Fairbanks International Airport. It crashed about 7 miles (11 kilometers) from there and “slid into a steep hill on the bank of the river where it caught fire,” according to Alaska State Troopers.

Clint Johnson, chief of the National Transportation Safety Board's Alaska regional office, said it remained unclear what happened in the time between the takeoff and the crash but the tower operator “saw a large plume of smoke.”

Michaela Matherne was flying from the village of Galena to Fairbanks to catch a flight to New Orleans when her small plane was diverted to verify the coordinates of the crash site.

“When we were in the air there was speculation that it was a cabin that caught fire, maybe a fish camp,” she told The Associated Press via Facebook Messenger.

“We actually didn’t know what we were looking at until after we landed a few minutes later,” she said. “We were shocked and saddened to hear that.”

The C-54 is a military version of the Douglas DC-4, which was a World War II-era airplane. The website www.airlines.net said standard passenger seating for a DC-4 was 44 during its heyday, but most have been converted to freighters.

The Federal Aviation Administration described the plane as a Douglas C-54. Troopers identified it as a DC-4.

The NTSB was sending investigators to the site, Johnson said.

Further information such as the flight's purpose and destination was not immediately available.

A fire burns after a Douglas C-54 Skymaster plane crashed into the Tanana River outside Fairbanks, Alaska, Tuesday, April 23, 2024. (Alaska State Troopers via AP)

A twin-engine plane crashed outside Fairbanks Tuesday. (AP Graphic)

A fire burns after a Douglas C-54 Skymaster crashed into the Tanana River outside Fairbanks, Alaska, Tuesday, April 23, 2024. (Michaela Matherne via AP)

A fire burns after a Douglas C-54 Skymaster crashed into the Tanana River outside Fairbanks, Alaska, Tuesday, April 23, 2024. (Michaela Matherne via AP)