“I never believed the illegal cargo. From the very beginning I considered it inappropriate and untimely, it only suits some people“: with this statement, Christos Vlachos, father of Vaios, who perished on the fateful night of February 28, 2023 in the tragedy of Tempi, clarified his position on the scenarios that have been in the spotlight from the very first moment, adding that he has received a lot of “bullying” for his views on the explosion and the fire.

Speaking at a commemoration event held today in Karditsa for the tragedy of Tempi with the 57 dead, Mr Vlachos continued: “It is now proven beyond any doubt that there is no illegal cargo. We have stationmaster’s audio recordings, the Leptokarya videos, the Kapernaros videos, the reports of the State General Laboratory… His view is that the components of the train engines caused this massive explosion. According to the literature we’ve found, silicone oils are fine to explode, fine to vaporize, fine to produce dangerous gases… All these machines, there are 5,000 machines in circulation all over Europe, are dangerous.”

For his part, Nikos Plakias, father of two girls who went missing in Tempe, agreed with Vlachos, saying, “I am 100% sure there was no cargo.” However, he wondered why for 13 months the government has not released the National Technical University of Athens’ findings, “which would shed a lot of light,” he argued.

In his statements before the event, Nikos Plakias once again called for an investigation into the qualifications of the technical consultants who have done the technical reports and referred to the case of Kostas Lakafosis.

Today’s event in Karditsa was organized by the Student Association of “Forestry, Wood Sciences and Design” and the “Parents and Guardians Association of the 5th Primary School and Kindergarten of Karditsa”.

The relatives tried to answer the questions arising from the development of the investigative process and stressed that they are waiting to see the truth with real evidence, so that they feel that there is justice for their own people.

A video on the tragedy was shown at the event, while a minute’s silence was observed for the loss of the victims.