What happened next was never clearly explained. The weather was very foggy, with visibility limited to 50 meters. The senior conductor and junior conductors both got down from the train. The senior conductor supposedly saw a green light close to the station office, which would have meant "permission to depart". He informed the junior conductor that he had seen the signal and shouted "Get on, dispatcher gives departure"; he asserted later that he saw only the flash of green light. Because of the fog, he was not able to identify the source of the light. It could not have been the station dispatcher, as he was in his office at the time. Though the junior conductor personally did not see the green light, he passed the signal to the locomotive. The head guard also accepted the existence of the green light, although he had not seen it. Some passengers later stated that they also might have seen such a light, but were not absolutely sure.