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Black box recorder recovered from wreckage of train crash

Commuter Jim Finan, of River Edge, N.J., told Fox News' "America's Newsroom" that the train barreled into the station in "at full tilt" and "never slowed down".

A major transit hub, the historic green-roofed Hoboken Station is served by NJ Transit commuter trains connecting much of New Jersey with the country's largest city, as well as PATH, a more local subway-like service going into Manhattan, a local light rail service and ferry service to NY. Christie said engineers were examining the station's structural integrity and it was too soon to say when it might reopen to NJ Transit trains.

A derailed New Jersey Transit train is seen under a collapsed roof after it derailed and crashed into the station in Hoboken, New Jersey, Sept. 29, 2016.

For the second time in just over five years, a train crashed at one of New Jersey's busiest stations.

Images show extensive damage to the train carriages and station, with part of the building roof caved in.

Witnesses said the train overran its stopping point, slammed into a bumper block, went airborne and hurtled through a passenger concourse at about 8:45 a.m.at the terminal, one of the busiest transit hubs in the NY area.

Investigators have recovered the black box that will tell them the train's speed at the moment of impact. The train's data recorder should also reveal how fast it was traveling and whether the brakes were applied before the crash. They expect the investigation to take seven to 10 days, NTSB vice chairman Bella Dinh-Zarr said. It is the final stop for several train lines and a transfer point for many commuters on their way to New York City. The NJ Transit portion of the Hoboken station will remain closed on Friday, slowing the morning commute for those making connections there.

The New Jersey medical examiner's office identified the victim as Fabiola Bittar de Kroon, 34, of Hoboken.

"She and her husband married several years ago and they spent a long time fostering a handsome relationship", said the friend, who studied with de Kroon in Florida when she was getting her MBA.

I was closing up the stroller.

"We had a good talk for like a minute", said Karlos Magner, the owner of the day care who also serves as co-director. Her LinkedIn page said she was a corporate lawyer who attended Florida International University. He was taken to hospital for minor injuries and released, and is cooperating with investigators, officials said, without providing further details.

"While we are just beginning to learn the cause of this crash, it appears that once again an accident was not prevented because the trains our commuters were riding lacked positive train control", said Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y. A union roster shows he has worked there as an engineer for 18 years, according to The Associated Press.

Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo cautioned people to wait until investigations are completed before concluding PTC would have prevented this incident.

Another transit employee, Michael Larson, said he heard a bomb-like explosion as the train hit the bumpers with such force that it went airborne - hitting the station's roof and causing it to partly collapse. But the speed limit into the station is 10 miles per hour.

Christie says there is no reason to believe there will be any more fatalities. The deadline is now the end of 2018.

The NTSB has said that positive train control technology could have prevented numerous railroad accidents involving human error.

The worst passenger train crash in recent years in the United States was the crash of an Amtrak train in Philadelphia in May, 2015 that killed eight passengers and injured 186.

Citing medical officials, USA media reports said three people were killed.

More than 100,000 people use NJ Transit trains to commute from New Jersey into NY every day.

Thomas Gallagher, the man at the controls of the NJ Transit train that plowed into a station Thursday, is a married father and veteran engineer who has worked in the rail industry for nearly three decades, officials said.

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Black box recorder recovered from wreckage of train crash