Sunday's high-speed train crash in southern Spain, the worst in over a decade, has been a devastating tragedy for the country, with the loss of at least 42 lives.
And amid the grief, many are asking what could have caused such a failure on one of Europe's most admired rail systems.
The CIAF rail investigatory commission has started analysing why a train travelling north from Málaga was derailed on a straight section of the route, causing it to collide with an oncoming train, which was also derailed.
The Spanish government has described the accident as extremely strange.
Three bodies already located in the wreckage were recovered on Tuesday afternoon, and a 42nd victim was found at the crash site near Adamuz.
The shock felt in this sleepy town has been compounded by confusion at how a rail route that ran efficiently for so long suddenly failed.
After its inauguration in 1992, Spain's high-speed rail, or AVE, network was seen as a symbol of the country's modernisation. Built with EU funds, it provided a state-of-the-art transport system that was fast, efficient and safe.
A derailment near Santiago de Compostela in 2013 that killed 80 people was not part of the AVE network, although that train was travelling at high speed. Sunday's collision, however, took place on the oldest AVE route, that which connects Madrid with Andalusia.
Several officials, including the president of Renfe, the national rail operator, Álvaro Fernández Heredia, said that human error was almost certainly not the cause of the accident, given that neither train was travelling at an excessive speed. Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska insisted that sabotage was not a possible cause.
Investigation efforts are focused on the train that derailed. Owned by Italian firm Iryo and manufactured in 2022, the train's carriage number six, which was the first to derail, is expected to provide crucial evidence.
Authorities are also scrutinizing the section of track where the derailment occurred, with indications that the track may have been broken prior to the collision. Adif, the rail infrastructure administrator, had flagged several technical issues along that line in the year preceding the accident, raising questions about the overall safety and maintenance of the network.
The government has committed to thorough investigations, with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez ensuring transparency in the inquiry process. As the recovery operations continue, the trauma of this tragedy lingers, and the implications for Spain's celebrated rail system might be profound.
