NTUA report: Fireball at Tempe train crash likely caused by silicone oils

Εngine oils, specifically silicone oils, could have created the large explosion and fireball that followed the deadly train crash at Tempe, central Greece, in February 2023, according to a new expert report on the accident published on Tuesday. The report, commissioned by the appellate examining judge conducting the investigation, Sotiris Bakaimis, and assigned to Professor Dimitris Karonis from the National Technical University of Athens, aimed to discover what caused the huge fireball that followed the collision and was recorded on camera footage. Karonis' report, 123 pages in total, found that silicone oils can ignite at temperatures of 330° C and above, under the conditions created by the accident. The expert based his findings on analyses and data from the General State Chemical Laboratory, on-site inspections, material sampling from the accident scene, international scientific data, comparisons, and evaluations. “Based on the above observations, the formation of a fireball under conditions of high-current electric arc is possible. This means that in the case of the tragic accident under investigation, it is also a possibility, since flashes attributed to an electric arc have been recorded,” Karonis states in his analysis. A second report delivered to the investigative judge Tuesday, which examined the wreckage of the commercial train in the site of Koulouri, found that the parts of the cockpit and the frames of the electric locomotive are not burned and therefore do not indicate an explosion. They only bear deformations from impact caused by the collision of the two trains. This separate report, was conducted by NTUA professor Petros Tsakiridis and was included in the final conclusion of the special fire brigade team investigation.