London — The boss of Heathrow got here beneath hearth for an 18-hour shutdown on the airport final month after an airline consultant stated he had raised issues concerning the hub’s resilience days earlier, as MPs scrutinised the nationally embarrassing incident.
A blaze at a substation close to the airport brought about the closure on March 21, elevating questions concerning the resilience of nationwide infrastructure. The incident left about 300,000 folks stranded and price airways hundreds of thousands of kilos.
MPs quizzed the CEO of Heathrow and senior representatives from Nationwide Grid, energy supplier SSE and an airline consultant on Wednesday for explanations.
Nigel Wicking, boss of the Heathrow Airline Operators’ Committee which represents 90 airways utilizing the hub, stated he had voiced concern on March 15.
“I’d really warned Heathrow of issues that we had with regard to the substations, and my concern was resilience,” Wicking stated.
He raised additional issues two days earlier than the hearth when the lights of considered one of Heathrow’s runways went out for a brief interval after cable theft.
Security was the primary concern for Heathrow, Thomas Woldbye, the airport’s CEO stated. The fireplace meant the airport needed to energy down methods, then rewire the airport to hook up with one other energy provide, earlier than powering again up, and that took hours.
Wicking stated the airport might and will have began flights sooner.
“I’m not listening to that there was an absence of energy to return into Heathrow,” he stated. “I used to be listening to that it took time to maneuver that energy to the place it wanted to be inside Heathrow. And 10 hours for me, had been too lengthy.”
The airport’s contracts with energy suppliers had resilience inbuilt, Woldbye stated. Constructing full resilience on the airport would come at a really excessive value, he stated, estimated at £1bn.
Reuters
