Heathrow bosses were confronted last night with questions about how a small fire closed one of the world's largest airports.
Tens of thousands of travelers are still stranded today after a fire at an electricity statistics that has cut electricity to the airport.
It resulted in unprecedented scenes, the majority of the day based on flights and exposing a great vulnerability in the country's infrastructure.
Last night a probe in the disaster was led by the police of the fight against terrorism, while sources of Westminster blame human mistakes.
Almost 300,000 passengers were hit by the Meltdown, which led to the cancellation or delay of more than 1,350 flights.
About 120 transatlantic services were forced to turn around in mid-journey.
Passengers on flights from Singapore and Perth were diverted to Paris before they brought buses to London.
While eight long-distance flights from British Airways started last night, analysts criticized the airport, the busiest in Europe, because of his inability to rely on backup power.
Willie Walsh, director-general of Global Airlines Body IATA and a former head of British Airways, said Heathrow had dropped the passengers again.
“First, how is it that critical infrastructure – from national and worldwide importance – is completely dependent on a single power source without an alternative,” he said.
“If that is the case – as it seems – then it is a clear planning error of the airport.”
AS Heathrow Close Sparks worldwide travel:
Heathrow bosses were confronted last night with questions about how a small fire closed one of the world's largest airports. Shown: the fire at Hayes Electrical Substation
The fire that resulted in unprecedented scenes, the majority of the day of earth flights and the exposure of great vulnerability in the infrastructure of the country. Dramatic images show flames that tear through the substation while smoking waves in the night sky
Tens of thousands of travelers are still stranded today after a fire at an electricity statistics that has cut electricity to the airport. Displayed: A tearful stranded couple in Heathrow T5 this morning
Almost 300,000 passengers were hit by the Meltdown, which led to the cancellation or delay of more than 1,350 flights. Depicted: a passenger who was on the floor this morning at Heathrow T5 after the fire had switched off the power at the airport
Phil Hewitt, director of energy analysis company Montel Group, said: 'This potential lack of resilience on a critical national and international infrastructure site is worrying.
“An airport as big and as important as Heathrow should not be vulnerable to a single failure point.”
Heathrow has its own biomass energy plant and dieselback generators, but they can only feed essential safety systems, such as lighting and starting doors.
The electricity of the airport usually comes from three substations, each with a back -up transformer.
In the case of the damaged North Hyde substation, in West -London, the Back -up transformer was also lost in the fire, which started shortly before midnight on Thursday.
Within a few hours, theories swirled that Sabotage, possibly even by Russia, could be the cause.
Despite the involvement of terrorophy, Scotland Yard said that “this incident did not deal with this incident, although questions continue to exist.”
“Various specialized researchers will continue to investigate the scene and it is expected to take some time before full reviews can be completed,” said a spokesperson.
The Politico website said that 'familiar with the investigation' point to an error by an electrical engineer who encouraged the fire. “It's always cock-up instead of conspiracy,” said a source.
Last night a probe in the disaster was led by the police of the fight against terrorism, while sources of Westminster blame human mistakes. Displayed: Firefighters are the rest of a fire that broke out at a substation that supplies electricity to Heathrow airport in Hayes, West -London
The smoldering northern hyde electric substation
London Fire Brigade said last night that the fire is 'considered non-sensitive'.
Thomas Woldbye, Chief Executive, said Heathrow Chief Executive that the airport had to do with a situation 'as bad as it will be for us'.
The offer had to be 'restructured' to draw on the other two substations, in which thousands of different systems were restarted – which “need a huge amount of time,” he said.
'We are very sorry about all the inconvenience. We have lost a large part of our diet. This was an incident of great seriousness. We lost power to that of a medium -sized city.
'Our back -up systems have worked as they should, but they have no size to run the entire airport. This is unprecedented. Everyone is shocked, but all our procedures have worked as they should. '
Mr Woldbye insisted that Heathrow cannot monitor himself '100 percent' against such incidents. The airport would be working today and passengers should go to the airport the moment they would normally do, he added.
Mr Woldbye's full wage has not been published since he took over the job in 2023, but his predecessor John Holland-Kaye earned £ 6.4 million in his final year.
Downing Street said that Mr Woldbye would have “questions to answer,” because the closure of Heathrow Groot -Britain costs around £ 20 million a day.
In addition to hundreds of thousands of passengers, the airport is also the gateway up to 4,300 tonnes of freight per day, worth £ 543 million.
A spokesperson for Nr.
Ba Chief Executive Sean Doyle warned that its services will be seriously affected in the coming days, with more than 100,000 customers on 670 planes that cannot fly yesterday.
The Onderstation Brand in Hayes included 25,000 liters of cooling oil inflamed, the London Fire Brigade (LFB) said
A fireman helps with extinguishing a fire that broke out at a substation that supplies the airport today to Heathrow airport
About 120 transatlantic services were forced to turn around in mid-journey. Passengers on flights from Singapore and Perth were diverted to Paris before they brought buses to London
Ba Chief Executive Sean Doyle warned that its services will be seriously affected in the coming days, with more than 100,000 customers on 670 planes that cannot fly yesterday. Shown: planes on the ground at Heathrow today
The fire came a day after Energy Regulator ofgem had announced an investment of £ 4 billion in plans to stimulate the British oppressor network.
A report from 2022 for the mayor of London showed that the Northern Hyde substation was sometimes the nominal capacity with 106.2 percent.
A substation is responsible for downing high -voltage electricity from suppliers and the distribution of houses and companies.
Dr. Conor Murphy, from Novogrid from Grid Analytics, said that overloaded transformers were a common cause of fires at substations.
“The oil -cooled equipment in Onderations forms these inherent fire risks, in particular due to an aging infrastructure or overloaded system,” he added.
'Full exclusions of the airport due to power failure are extremely rare. The incident underlines wider vulnerabilities of the schedule.
“The cause of the fire must be determined to prevent similar events in the future – whether it was an electrical error, human errors or external factors.”
He added that it can take a year before the substation was restored because highly specialized equipment has to be replaced.
Energie -Secretary Ed Miliband said that the full closure of Heathrow the airport looked 'quite vulnerable'.
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander defended the airport and acknowledged the 'immense need and disruption' that caused his closing to passengers.
Justine Bayley, chairman of Stop Heathrow extension, said: 'How competent are the bosses of Heathrow? We should not put all our eggs in that basket.
“If we want to increase British connectivity with the rest of the world, today's fiasco has shown that we have to spread the load and the risk for other airports.”
