London's Heathrow Airport Reopens After Fire-Led Outage, Terror Agency Leads Probe | Top Points
Heathrow airport remained closed on Friday after a fire at an electrical substation in west London just before midnight knocked out power to Europe’s busiest airport.
London’s Heathrow Airport Reopens: The UK’s Heathrow airport’s authorities on Friday said that they are in the process of reopening after a fire in nearby West London Hayes substation knocked out its power supply and stranded thousands of passengers and caused travel turmoil worldwide.
According to Flightradar24, over 1,300 flights have been cancelled, affecting at least 290,000 passengers.
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“Our teams have worked tirelessly since the incident to ensure a speedy recovery. We’re now safely able to restart flights, prioritising repatriation and relocation of aircraft," Heathrow said in a statement on social media site X.
The world’s fifth busiest airport also said that it hopes to run a full operation tomorrow.
“We hope to run a full operation tomorrow and will provide further information shortly. Our priority remains the safety of our passengers and those working at the airport. We apologise for the inconvenience caused by this incident".
Heathrow Faces Criticism For Outage
Heathrow authorities came under sharp criticism not just from travellers and airlines but also from aviation authorities who demanded answers on how such crucial infrastructure could fail.
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“You would think they would have significant back-up power," one top executive from a European airline told Reuters.
Heathrow said that when the fire at the substation started its back-up energy systems worked “as expected". It was responding to criticism from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) who had said that it would be a “clear planning failure" if Heathrow turned out to be “dependent on a single power source without an alternative", according to a report by UK-based broadcaster Sky News.
The industry is now facing the prospect of a financial hit costing tens of millions of pounds, and a likely fight over who should pay.
UK Counter-Terror Agency Probing Outage
UK’s Metropolitan Police said that there was no indication that there was foul play involved but highlighted that they are keeping an open mind and counter-terrorism officers would lead the inquiries, given their capabilities and the critical nature of the infrastructure.
Airline experts said the last time European airports experienced disruption on such a large scale was the 2010 Icelandic ash cloud that grounded some 100,000 flights.
Alice Delahunty, the president of National Grid’s transmission business, told The Guardian that it has refused to rule out that an act of sabotage may be behind the substation fire which cut power to Heathrow airport. “We’re not in a position to rule anything in or out," Delahunty was quoted as saying.
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