In the predawn hours of Sept. 22, Amtrak's Sunset Limited, bound for Miami, plunged off the broken span of a railroad bridge and into a bayou near Mobile, Ala., killing 47 people in the rail line's worst accident.
The National Transportation Safety Board said that shortly before the passenger train reached the bridge, a towboat operator who was lost in dense fog had hit the bridge, knocking it and the tracks on it out of alignment.
As orange flames illuminated the Bayou Canot, passengers struggled frantically to help each other to safety. Some of the survivors were rescued by the towboat crew.
