NTSB: 44 minutes before power cut in DC train tunnel

The National Transportation Safety Board has released a preliminary report about what happened at the L'Enfant Plaza Metro when it filled with smoke, leading to one woman's death. VPCSmoke fills a Washington Metro system subway car near the L'Enfant Plaza station Jan. 12, 2015 in Washington.(Photo: Andrew Litwin, AP)WASHINGTON — The National Transportation Safety Board released a preliminary report Friday on a Washington subway train that filled with smoke earlier this week, leading to one passenger's death.An electrical malfunction occurred at about 3:06 p.m. ET Monday in a tunnel where arcing on the third rail and damaged electrical cables caused heavy smoke ahead of the Metro train, according to the NTSB report.There was a 44 minute delay until the power was cut to the third rail, the report said.The train, which had just left the L'Enfant Plaza station and was heading toward Virginia, stopped in the tunnel at 3:15, about 1,100 feet short of the source of the smoke, the report said. One minute later, Metro began ventilating the tunnel in an effort to push out the smoke. But Metro didn't shut down power to the affected rail until 3:50 p.m., according to the report. The power was shut down remotely from the subway system's command center.The train that filled with smoke could not back into L'Enfant Plaza station because another train was in the way, the report stated. Passengers aboard both trains were exposed to heavy smoke, according to the report.District of Columbia officials said firefighters first reached the train at 3:48 p.m. — two minutes before power to the affected rail was cut off.Carol Glover, 61, of Alexandria, Va., died of acute respiratory failure due to smoke exposure, according to the city medical examiner's office. Dozens of other passengers were transported to area hospitals.Fellow passengers performed CPR on Glover before emergency medical workers arrived, and she wasn't taken to a hospital until more than an hour after the train began filling with smoke.Passengers said the conductor of the train in the tunnel told them repeatedly that he planned to back the train up and return it to the station once the other train cleared the platform, but aside from several lurches, the train didn't move much at all. The presence of the train in the station, noted Friday by the NTSB, may help explain why the first train was unable to back up.MORE: Read the full report hereThe report does not say what caused the malfunction, which caused severe damage to the third rail and electrical cables. The NTSB is reviewing records on maintenance and previous events with smoke, employee training records and Metro's emergency response and evacuation plans. Investigators are also interviewing the Metro employees involved and reviewing surveillance video.The accident was the first fatality on the nation's second-busiest subway system since a 2009 crash between two trains that killed eight passengers and a train operator. A Metro spokesman declined to comment Friday on the NTSB report.Contributing: The Associated PressEurope anti-terrorism raids lead to dozens of arrestsJan 16, 2015