Extremely revealing of the carelessness with which the famous “Ghent University report” on the fireball was adopted—following suggestions from European officials who drafted the Investigative Committee‘s report—are the emails between Christos Papadimitriou and Bart Accou, brought to light today by protothema.gr.

In internal communications with Bart Accou, the number 2 official of the European Union Agency for Railways, the deputy president of EODASAAM, Christos Papadimitriou, appears to request on February 17 (ten days before the report’s publication) that the Organization formally contract with Ghent University, regardless of cost. He proposes that it be announced during the presentation of the report that additional analysis has been requested from the Belgian university, without drawing a definitive conclusion about the fireball.

However, in his response, Mr. Accou states that it is clear to him that the ignition of train components did not play a role in the activation of the fireball. Moreover, the Belgian expert refers to Interstar’s videos, saying that the fact that this conclusion is not clearly supported by the footage does not invalidate the findings based on other evidence.

The email from Christos Papadimitriou to Bart Accou

In the email to Mr. Accou, Christos Papadimitriou asks him to mediate in order to establish contact with the University of Lausanne “so we can find the truth and respond to any accusations of covering up the true cause of the fire,” suggesting that this expert analysis be presented on February 27, the day the EODASAM report is due to be released.

Accou’s Response

On the same day, Bart Accou responds to Christos Papadimitriou, expressing his absolute conviction regarding the fireball, stating that “the transformers or other parts of the engines played no role in the ignition or development of the fireball.”

He also conveys the message that “the fact that this conclusion is not explicitly confirmed by the recently published videos in no way contradicts the findings that have consistently been supported by clear evidence.”