And on the flip side, if he was traveling alone (solito), it would not make for good PR to admit that he was traveling against the protective protocol of always having another missionary by your side.
The article says he just finished his MTC training for six weeks. So he was a greenie.
It wouldn't reflect well on the Mission President if he was sending off one of his new missionaries to El Ferrol, Spain all by himself.
The article says the missionary purchased the wrong ticket and so I wonder, was he originally scheduled to travel in a two-some? Did the other missionary buy the right ticket and go at a different time? Were the tickets non-refundable? Did the mission president allow two Elders to then travel on two different days? There are many questions yet to be answered.
Apparently he had just finished up his first six weeks in a Madrid MTC learning Spanish. He was on his way to meet his first missionary companion when the train derailed. I believe he was traveling alone.
The USA Today article mentions that he is a cancer survivor.
I'm glad that he survived. It seems like it was a matter of chance on that train. So now he has beaten death twice, considering his prior fight with cancer. He's a very lucky young man!