A lot was discussed during the nearly eight-hour long board meeting held by the National Transportation Safety Board on June 25 - resulting in 30 recommendations to make sure a derailment like the one in East Palestine never happens again.

Before these recommendations were made however, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy raised some serious accusations about Norfolk Southern during the board's investigation into what happened.

This includes attempting to subvert the NTSB's investigation in several ways and even going so far as to threaten the board over their final report.

Norfolk is accused of trying to submit their own investigation into the derailment under the guise of a party submission four times, Homendy said during the hearing.

Parties are allowed to submit to the NTSB written proposed findings that can be drawn from evidence discovered during the investigation.

However, Homendy said that Norfolk "manufactured their own evidence and developed their own set of facts outside of the NTSB investigative process."

When that did not work out in their favor, Homendy alleges that Norfolk Southern went around the investigator in charge to submit their "findings" directly to the board on May 1.

The company also urged the board to overrule the investigator in charge and direct them and the staff to include their submitted findings in the investigation.

"This demonstrated complete disregard for the conduct of our independent investigation" Homendy said during the hearing. "In speaking with the investigative and legal teams, Norfolk Southern's abuse of the party process was unprecedented and reprehensible."

Two weeks before the board meeting yesterday, Norfolk Southern met with the board. A senior executive form the company said that there was a "real interest from the Department of Justice and the administration to move on." 

They then told the board that this was an opportunity to close a chapter and allow the community and the railroad to move on.

"The entire exchange ended with what everyone from the NTSB heard in the room was a threat," Homendy said. "It is not our role to defend Norfolk Southern. We are here to protect the American people and the traveling public."

A few days before the meeting, the company invited the NTSB to tour key points of the derailment site and a new digital train inspection portal in Leetonia.  Homendy says this invitation violated the board's ethics standards.

"Norfolk Southern's actions were unconscionable," Homendy concluded. "....We are impervious to anything but the truth...I will not allow any entity to malign the reputation of the investigative staff, which is exactly what [Norfok's] aim was."

21 News has reached out to Norfolk Southern for comment and is awaiting their response.