Photographer Finds Undercarriage Piece That May Offer Clues in Spain Crash

Finbarr O’Reilly, a photographer on assignment for The New York Times, said he found a large piece of train undercarriage partly submerged at the edge of a stream near the site of a collision between two high-speed trains in Adamuz, southern Spain. He wrote that the fragment could provide clues about what went wrong.

O’Reilly reached the scene about 22 hours after the crash, when survivors had been evacuated and most bodies had been retrieved. After photographing wreckage from hillsides and keeping his distance from cordoned areas, he found the unmarked piece while returning from a vantage point; he photographed it, did not disturb it, and sent the images to colleagues, who informed the authorities and began their own investigation. The publication of the pictures ignited a firestorm across Spanish media and raised questions about the thoroughness of the official probe.

The authorities said they knew about the debris but did not answer questions about when they became aware of it. The transport minister, Óscar Puente, told Spain’s state broadcaster that the undercarriage had been located on Monday morning. The day after O’Reilly’s discovery — and three days after the crash — officials released photographs showing investigators marking the site and documenting the piece, but they have not responded to questions about when those photos were taken.

Key Topics

World, Finbarr O'reilly, Spain Train Crash, Adamuz, Guardia Civil, Oscar Puente