Fresh questions were asked tonight about the decision to close Heathrow after the boss of the national schedule insisted that there was enough power left to run the airport after last week's fire at an electricity station.
In his first comments since the fire broke out on Thursday evening, John Pettigrew said that, while a nearby substation was eliminated by an 'unprecedented' blaze, two others who served the airport worked everywhere.
“Each substation can offer sufficient power to Heathrow separately,” he told the Financial Times, and added that it was a “question for Heathrow” why it made the decision to close the airport.
He added: 'Losing a substation is a unique event – but two others were available. So that's a level of resilience. '
About 200,000 passengers were hit by the decision to close the airport in the early hours of Friday morning, which led to aircraft being diverted or returned to their city of origin while they were still in the air.
The disruption is expected to have cost tens of millions of pounds.
Flights had largely returned to normal today, but there was criticism of Heathrow's leadership when it appeared, Chief Executive Thomas Woldbye went to bed when the fire raged and flights were canceled – the decision to close the airport to its number two.
Mr Woldbye had been at an event in Central London when the fire broke out shortly after 11 p.m. on Thursday.
The CEO of the National Raster John Pettigrew (photo) said that, while a nearby substation was eliminated by an 'unprecedented' fire, two others who served the airport, worked everywhere
The CEO of Heathrow Airport Thomas Woldbye. After the fire it was decided that the Woldbye team would go to bed just after midnight
The fire at an electric substation close to the airport started Thursday evening at 11 p.m.
While the airport was immersed in the darkness, the senior leadership of the airport was split into two 'Gold Command' teams.
At about 12.30 pm it was decided that the Woldbye team would go to bed, according to the Sunday Times.
The official announcement that Heathrow was closed came on Friday at 1.44 am, by order of Javier Echve, the most important operational officer of the airport.
Mr Woldbye then called back on Friday at 7.30 am in a phone call with senior leadership before arriving at the airport's head office shortly after 9 a.m.
Today a Heathrow spokesperson said that “the description of the procedure did not recognize” but confirmed that it followed a “robust crisis protocol” so that “experienced leaders [are] able to make important decisions that have had enough rest. '
The spokesperson added: 'This protocol was followed so that Thomas [Woldbye]And his entire senior leadership team were exactly where they should be during an incident of this scale. '
Asked on Saturday at BBC Radio 4's Today's Program or he should resign, said Mr Woldbye, the Danish former boss of Copenhagen Airport who took over it at Heathrow in 2023, “no comments.”
He added: “I will let others judge it if they think that's a problem.”
Passengers Kim Schmidt (right) with his wife Julia and daughter, Shaalene. The family should fly back to Hamburg on Friday evening
Energie -Secretary Ed Miliband has also ordered the National Energy System operator to urgently investigate power outage
But Mr Woldbye, who was paid for more than £ 3 million last year, was confronted with calls to hold himself responsible for the fiasco. An internal assessment of the crisis management plans of the airport and the reaction to the power outage will be carried out by former transport secretary Ruth Kelly, who is an independent member of the Heathrow board.
Energie -Secretary Ed Miliband has also ordered the National Energy System operator to 'investigate' the power outages.
A Senior Tory Member of Parliament said: 'What happened in Heathrow was a national shame. Stories from decision makers who go back to bed will not give the public confidence that this airport will be run or managed properly.
'This research has to move quickly, because there is nothing to say that this will not happen time and time again. The public cannot wait six months for a clipboard exercise to say that something went wrong – immediate steps have to be taken to ensure that this can no longer happen and there are robust back -up systems in place. '
At Heathrow, many passengers who were hit by the power outage still tried to go home their way and to elordinate their anger on Mr Woldbye and the impact of the substation fire.
Broker Kim Schmidt, 55, was originally due to traveling to his house in Hamburg on Friday with his wife, Julia, and daughter, Salene. He spoke with the post while he prepared to finally return to Germany.
“We were lucky – we stayed with my sister, but they did not offer an emergency accommodation or contacted them,” said Schmidt.
The electric substation the morning after it caused a fire that led to widespread disturbance that is expected to have cost tens of millions of pounds
“I think the CEO should absolutely resign. He treated the situation badly.
“If my airport were to close, I would like to be there to check what is going on.”
Fighting officers for the fight against the metropolitan police initially led the investigation into the fire, but the armed forces said that the fire is not supposed to be suspicious, so London Fire Brigade now leads the probe that will concentrate on the electric distribution equipment.
A spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Authority [CAA] said: 'We require Heathrow to have a resilience plan to cover periods of disruption and we also require that it cooperates with other parties at the airport to manage and repair it
“There will of course be lessons from this event.”
A Heathrow spokesperson added: “Our apologies for the inconvenience caused by our decision to close the airport on Friday after a considerable fire at an off-site power substation.”
