Rachel Jacobs, 39, told her husband she was on the New York-bound train on Tuesday night and has not been heard from since; co-workers say they’ve checked with local hospitals and cannot find her
Friends have expressed their fears for a tech CEO and married mother who texted her husband to say she was on Train 188 on Tuesday night – before it derailed near Philadelphia, killing six people and leaving more than 140 injured on one of the nation’s busiest train lines.
Rachel Jacobs, 39, has not been in touch with loved ones since the Northeast Regional Amtrak train careened off the tracks at Frankford Junction shortly after 9pm on Tuesday, derailing seven cars and leaving dozens of passengers scrambling for their lives.
Jacobs, who has a two-year-old child, was recently hired as the CEO of online learning tech start-up ApprenNet. She commuted to Philadelphia, where the team is based, twice a week from her home in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, she said in a recent interview.
Around 8.45pm on Tuesday, she texted her husband to say that she was on the train heading back to New York.
‘We called, texted and emailed her right when crash happened, because we knew she was on the train,’ ApprenNet COO Emily Foote told PhillyMag. ‘I went to the hospitals last night and she wasn’t in any of them. I went to the churches and schools where people are being sheltered, and we still can’t find her.’
Karl Okamoto, a friend and colleague of Jacobs, told CNN that Amtrak do not have her on their passenger list because her ’10 pass’ ticket meant she could get on any train without reserving a ticket. He said they have no record of her on the train.
Among the six people killed was a midshipman from the U.S. Naval academy in Annapolis, Maryland, a source told CNN.
CNN reported that one of the six people who died was a student at the U.S. Naval Academy.
Among those killed was a midshipman from the U.S. Naval academy in Annapolis, Maryland, a source close to the Naval Academy said.
On Wednesday morning, federal investigators arrived at the scene as search teams worked with dogs to look for anyone still trapped beneath the overturned cars and to sift through the mangled remains to determine what went wrong.
Among the investigators, a team from the National Transportation Safety Board arrived at the site early on Wednesday and the Federal Railroad Administration said it was dispatching at least eight investigators.
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With tremendous sadness, we extend our deepest condolences to the family of TorahMate Justin (Avraham Yitzchak) Zemser, z’l, horrifically taken from us in the Amtrak derailment this morning, and especially to parents Howard and Susan, who have been members of the Oorah family for many years. We cannot fathom the depth of your pain and grief. May Hashem comfort you among all the mourners of Israel.