Was Amtrak Train Hit By a Flying Object?

The Amtrak train that derailed along the nation's busiest tracks may have been struck by an object in the moments before it crashed, investigators said Friday, raising new questions about the deadly accident. National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt said an assistant conductor aboard the train told investigators that she heard Amtrak engineer Brandon Bostian talking over the radio with an engineer for a regional railroad just before the crash. The windshield of the Amtrak train was shattered in the accident but one area of glass had a breakage pattern that could be consistent with being hit by an object, he said, and the FBI is investigating. Sumwalt declined to speculate about the exact significance of a projectile striking the train, but the idea raised the possibility that the engineer might have been distracted, panicked or even wounded in the moments before the train left the rails.