Aday after flights were grounded at Europe’s busiest airport Heathrow, operations resumed on March 22. The airport was shut down due to an unprecedented loss of power caused by a substation fire. It caused inconvenience to as many as 200,000 passengers as at least 1,351 inbound and outbound flights were grounded throughout March 21.
Inbound planes were diverted to other airports in Europe after flames ripped through the North Hyde plant in Hayes, west London. Air India too had temporarily suspended its flight operations from Heathrow. Flights to London Gatwick remain unaffected.
British Airways said 85 per cent of its planned flights on March 22 would run, meaning 60 services to and from Heathrow would be cancelled. Turkish Airlines and Virgin Atlantic have also cancelled flights According to BBC, the airport’s chief executive Thomas Woldbye apologised to stranded passengers and said the disruption was “as big as it gets for our airport” and that it could not guard itself “100%”.
The Met Police confirmed the fire was not believed to be suspicious. A fire in a substation in the western part of London led to a “significant power outage” and left over 16,000 homes without electricity. According to British media over 150 people were also evacuated.
The London Fire Brigade said it had deployed 10 fire engines and around 70 firefighters and a 200-metre safety cordon is in effect. Local residents – the substation is in Hayes in London’s Hillingdon borough, were told to stay inside and keep doors and windows closed because of the smoke.
Chairman of the National Preparedness Commission and Labour peer, Lord Toby Harris, said the closure was an “enormous failure”, reported BBC.
“It sounds to me like Heathrow Airport was simply not as prepared as it should have been,” he told BBC. He added that there should have been better continency plans for emergency power.
