Amtrak passengers describe a scene of horror

assengers riding Amtrak's Northeast Regional Train 188 from Washington, D.C., to New York City on Tuesday night were engaged in the quiet activities of travelers settling in for a long ride.

Some watched movies or shows on computers and iPads. Some were sleeping.

Then from one second to the next, the tranquility erupted into chaos as passengers, luggage and computers went hurling and slamming into roofs and windows as seven cars derailed from the track and toppled on their sides.

Six people were killed and at least 144 people were hospitalized with injuries when the train carrying 238 passengers and five crewmembers derailed at 9 p.m. Tuesday.

One of the dead is a U.S. Naval Academy midshipman who was on leave and on his way home, the school said.

In a statement, the school said it would withhold the identity of the midshipman for 24 hours so all family members can be notified.

An Associated Press video software architect was also killed, the news service reported Wednesday morning.

Jim Gaines, a 48-year-old married father of two, had attended meetings in Washington and was returning home to Plainsboro, N.J., when the train derailed Tuesday night. His death was confirmed by his wife, Jacqueline. Gaines also leaves behind a son, Oliver, 16, and daughter, Anushka, 11.

Gaines joined the AP in 1998 and was a key decision-maker in nearly all of the news agency's video initiatives, including a service providing live video to hundreds of clients worldwide.

Gaines won AP's "Geek of the Month" award in May 2012 for his "tireless dedication and contagious passion" to technological innovation, the company said.

He was part of a team that won the AP Chairman's Prize in 2006 for developing the agency's Online Video Network.