PHILADELPHIA - The National Transportation Safety Board says the New York-bound Amtrak train that derailed near Philadelphia last night, killing seven people, was traveling at over 100 miles per hour.

At a press conference Wednesday afternoon, NTSB's Robert Sumwalt said that according to preliminary data, the train was traveling 106 miles per hour on a turn where the maximum authorized speed is 50 miles per hour.

Sumwalt said the train's engineer applied emergency brakes just before the train derailed.

The train's engineer has been identified as 32-year-old Forest Hills resident Brandon Bostian.

Neighbors said they have yet to hear from Bostian since the crash.

His building supervisor said he's a friendly person and a good tenant.

"Beautiful guy," the building supervisior said. "I never have a problem with him. He never had a problem in the building. Nice guy. Really nice guy."

Among the deceased is Justin Zemser, a 20-year-old Naval Academy midshipman from Rockaway Beach.

In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, Naval Academy officials said he was on leave and was headed home.

Officials say grief counselors have been provided for his fellow students.

Zemser was a graduate of the Channel View School for Research.

Also confirmed dead in the crash is Rachel Jacobs, a Manhattan resident who was the CEO of a Philadelphia-based education software company.

Her family called her death an unthinkable tragedy. In a statement, they said, "Rachel was a wonderful mother, daughter, sister, wife and friend. She was devoted to her family, her community and the pursuit of social justice."

Abid Gilani, a city resident who was a senior vice president for Wells Fargo for about a year, according to his LinkedIn profile, was also killed in the crash. A company spokeswoman confirmed his death.

Also killed in the crash was Derrick Griffith, the acting dean of enrollment management and student services at Medgar Evers College. His LinkedIn page said he was also the founding principal of CUNY Prep School.

The Associated Press reports one of their video software architects, Jim Gaines, 48, was also killed in the crash.

Investigators say Amtrak Train 188 from Washington D.C. went off the tracks Tuesday around 9:30 p.m.

It was due to arrive at Penn Station at 10:45 p.m.

The train was carrying more than 238 passengers and five crew members, according to the NTSB.

More than 200 people were treated for injuries.

At Temple University Hospital alone, 25 passengers were seen, almost all of them suffering from broken ribs. Eight are in critical condition. 

The black box from the train was recovered and is now being analyzed in Delaware.

Sumwalt said the NTSB's investigation at the site of the crash will last about a week.

“Our mission is to not only find out what happened but why it happened so we can prevent it from happening again,” Sumwalt said.

Sumwalt said a system to limit train speed was not installed where the derailment occurred, which could have prevented the incident.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday morning, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and other officials say they don't want to speculate on the cause of the accident. He reiterated that message in a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, saying the focus is to continue searching the site of the crash.

“What we have to do today, what we have to stay focused on … is making sure that we are searching every car, every inch,” he said.

Nutter confirmed that the train's engineer was injured in the crash and after receiving medical care, was interviewed by the Philadelphia Police.

Jeff Cutler, a financial journalist from Cobble Hill, survived the crash.

He said he was on his way back from a conference in Washington. He was sitting in the second car.

He said everything seemed normal before the crash.

"People ask, 'Did you feel anything or notice anything different, immediately before this happened?' and I didn't," he said. "It just felt normal, until this point where the train did seem to be going fast. I don't know if it was abnormally fast, but it was going fast and around a curve, and at this moment, it started to tip over, and then it seemed like it lifted into the air and, lifted into the air, turned and hit the ground with a thud."

Former Pennsylvania Congressman Pat Murphy was also on board and described a horrific scene inside.

"I saw everyone. I could see the blood on people's faces. They can't move. Their knees were out. I just tried to do my best to help people get out of that car because it was smoking," Murphy said.

The area where the accident happened is called Frankford Junction, and it has a big curve. 

The Associated Press says its analysis of surveillance video shot just before the crash shows that the train, approximately 662 feet long, passes the camera in a little more than five seconds.

Officials want to account for everyone who was on the train, so anyone who was on the train is being asked to call the Amtrak Incident Hotline at 1-800-523-9101. Those looking for information on family and friends who were on the derailed train are asked to call that number as well.

Meanwhile, the derailment means service changes for Amtrak along the Northeast Corridor.

Service between New York and Philadelphia remains suspended.

A few blocks from Penn Station, Amtrak travelers formed long lines for bus service out of the city Wednesday night.

Riders said they're making drastic changes to their travel plans.

"We've even researched possibly renting out a car and driving down there ourselves," said one commuter. "But the bus is easy. It's cheap. So it's no big deal."

"We immediately just got on the Internet and made alternative arraignments," said another. "I still have my ticket on Amtrak, but everything's closed now."

"We're booked, and this is the one that's going to work for us, I hope," said a third.

New Jersey Transit will honor Amtrak tickets between New York and Trenton.

Stretching from Washington D.C. to Boston, the Northeast Corridor is popular transportation link on the East Coast that moves more 700,000 commuters daily on tracks shared, in parts, by Amtrak and commuter rail lines such as Metro-North, New Jersey Transit and the Long Island Rail Road.

It is also a corridor that Amtrak officials and transportation experts have long said is badly in need of upgrades to its infrastructure.

NTSB officials will pore over the crash site, looking at any possible factors in the derailment. Those factors will include rail conditions and the crew's actions and awareness.

Investigators will likely be on site for several days, with obvious service interruptions for commuters who would be traveling through the area where the derailment occurred. 

The investigation will take shape over several months and possibly more than a year.

The derailment will also undoubtedly bring more attention to the repeated calls for more capital investment to the Northeast Corridor, where some of the infrastructure, including tunnels and bridges, is more than a century old.

In the past, Amtrak President Joseph Boardman has said the corridor is in a "state of crisis" due to its growing ridership, which hit 11.6 million in 2014, and that it needs billions of dollars in improvements.

Despite the casualties, this wasn't the deadliest crash in Amtrak history. That happened back in 1993, when an Amtrak train hit damaged tracks near Mobile, Alabama and plunged into the bayou, killing 47 people. The tracks were damaged in that incident when a barge hit a railroad bridge before the crash.