The Missing Passengers Of The Amtrak Crash

On Tuesday night, an Amtrak trail departing from Philadelphia suffered a major derailment, leaving a reported six passengers dead and over 200 injured. And, even more troublingly, not everybody is accounted for yet. For example: tech CEO Rachel Jacobs is missing after the Amtrak crash, stirring fears amid her friends and family, who believe she was most likely aboard the train when it went off the rails. (Update: Eight passengers have now been confirmed dead.)

Jacobs isn't the only person missing after the crash, although details are still somewhat scarce in this regard. As detailed by CNBC, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter has publicly stated that there's no firm count just now on how many people are still missing, but hopefully more information will become available soon — it must be a grueling wait for those affected, to say nothing of the lengthy investigation process this is all going to take. According to Time, the train's "black box" recorder (yep, trains have them too) has already been recovered by search teams.

It also bears mentioning, and this is very important: in the event that you or somebody you know had family or friends on the train that are still unaccounted for, and you're wanting information, you can get in touch with Amtrak's phone line for inquiries. The number is (800) 523-9101.

Jacobs, 39 years old, is the CEO of ApprenNet, and had just recently ascended to this role to replace former CEO Karl Okamoto, who spoke to Philly.com on Wednesday. According to Okamoto, she was "almost certainly" on board the train, having contacted her husband beforehand to let him know she was headed home to Manhattan.

Jacobs has a family, as alluded to above, a husband and a 2-year-old. And, as Okamoto told Philly.com, the nature of her frequent Amtrak use may be making it harder to find a record of her. He told them that she was riding the train on a prepaid 10-trip ticket, which means there wasn't a prior reservation to check, and as such her presence wouldn't have been logged unless her ticket was scanned in-train prior to the crash. Considering how quickly the derailment occurred — just minutes following the train's departure — that may not have happened.

Again, because it's important enough to bear repeating — if you've got information or inquiries about friends or loved ones who were aboard the derailed train, you can get in touch with Amtrak at (800) 523-9101.